October 30, 2016 Bible Study — Faith, Persistence, and Prayer

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

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Today, I am reading and commenting on Luke 17-18.

    Right after telling His disciples that if they had faith like a mustard seed they could tell a tree to be uprooted and it would happen, He tells them that they should not expect to be praised for doing as He commands. If our faith is true we will do as God commands because it is our duty to do so, not because we expect to be rewarded for doing so. Looking at the connection which Jesus makes here between the impact of our having faith on doing God’s will gives me a new insight into the parable of the persistent widow. In that parable Jesus tells us to learn from the woman who got justice from an unjust judge because she was persistent. In the same way, we are to be persistent in our prayers. The thing which connects this to the earlier teaching about faith is that Jesus wraps up this teaching by asking how many He will find with faith when He returns. Do I have enough faith to be persistent in my prayers?