But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?

 Luke 18:8

There was this widow who went to an unrighteous judge and asked for justice against her adversary. For a while, the judge denied her request, but because of her continual coming, he gave her what she wanted. And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. Even he rendered a just decision in the end. So don’t you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Luke 18:6-8).

I have questioned the purpose of day and night prayer since I first heard about it years ago in Kansas City at the International House of Prayer. I asked myself and my husband, what is the point? Why would people devote their whole lives to sit in a room unseen by most of the world to pray and worship? Isn’t that what we do in church or in our own homes? And you can do those things in those places. You are the building of God, His fellow workers, Scripture says (1 Cor. 3:9)! So wherever you go, you can be the house of prayer that God desires His people to be.

And when I still found myself asking why day and night prayer and worship, I came to a simple, yet profound answer. Because He is worthy of it. Because it is what our God deserves and desires. For what did Jesus tell His disciples to pray for? For His Kingdom to come, His will to be done, on earth, as it is in Heaven. And what does His Kingdom look like in Heaven? It looks like day and night prayer and worship. It sounds like, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come” (Rev. 4:8)! 

But when the Lord returns, will He find His people bold enough, persistent enough, compassionate and zealous enough to ask Him for the mercy and justice He delights to give? Will He find us on our knees, crying out to Him, day and night? Will He find us with oil burning in our lamps, waiting on Him, worshiping Him, longing for Him and laboring with Him in prayer? Yes, God will do the work. We may plant and sow and harvest, but He gives the growth. But the miracle is this: He wants to work with us. He allows us, even with our weakness and imperfections, to walk beside Him, to sit with Him and labor with Him who is able to save to the uttermost.

And as we look at Him in worship and wonder, we become more like Him. As we devote our lives to loving Him, we will find that the fruit of loving God is obeying God. It is a service born purely out of love for God that glorifies Him most. For if our service to Him does not flow from a place of love and longing, then it will be an unpleasant and noisy sound in His ears (1 Cor. 13:1). Jesus said,  “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him” (John 14:23). 

For so long, I read this verse and felt overwhelmed with shame. I always felt like I wasn’t doing enough for God. And so I just kept trying harder, or worse, I felt defeated and stopped trying to obey Him at all. But what has changed my life is realizing that service is a fruit of love. If we give ourselves to the first and greatest commandment, then we will find that good works overflow naturally from that love. But if we take our eyes off Jesus and focus on the work to be done instead, then we are neglecting that which would make us most effective in our work. For we can do nothing apart from Jesus! For as Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).

“But if we take our eyes off Jesus and focus on the work to be done instead, then we are neglecting that which would make us most effective in our work.”

When asked what the greatest commandment in the law was, Jesus answered: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matt. 22:37). All that God wants is your heart. For if He has your whole heart, He will have everything else. For the heart determines your whole course of life (Prov. 4:23). May we guard our hearts, the place that the Living God calls home on earth. May we fiercely protect the love we had at first, making sure there is nothing in our lives that comes close to capturing our gaze or dividing our attention. May we not look to the right or to the left, but straight ahead, where the face of God shines forth as our prize for the race set out before us. For God is our prize. If we are working or striving for anything else but Him, we will be in for a shock when we get to Heaven. For He is all that we have in Heaven (Ps. 73:25-26). So let Him be all that we desire on earth. For as God Himself said to His servant Abram, “I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward” (Gen. 15:1). 

Lord, set a flaming sword before our hearts to guard it from anything that is not of You. Guard our hearts from desiring glory above seeing You glorified. Guard us from seeking breakthrough more than the beauty of Your face. Guard us from being jealous of others’ gifts instead of jealous for more of the gift of Your presence. 

Thank You, Jesus, for letting Yourself be known by us. Thank You for coming near to the lowly. Thank You for bending down to listen to our prayers. Thank You for the gift of eternal proximity with You. For You we live and labor. We are here for You. We love You. May we be a Church with the heart of Moses, who was so aware of His need for you that He prayed to God, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here” (Ex. 33:15 NIV). 

Thank You Jesus, for Your grace that empowers us to both desire and accomplish Your will on earth as it is in Heaven. Keep us hungry, Lord. Don’t let us settle for anything less than the fullness of You, than the knowledge of the glory of You filling the earth as the waters cover the sea. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. 

Excerpt from my book, The Good Portion: Poetry and Reflections

Get it on Kindle or paperback here: https://a.co/d/aueXb4G