seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Luke 18:1 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. 2 He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. 3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’
4 “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”
6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8 I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”
This morning, before I got out of bed, I was thinking of painting some rocks. It's a thing out here in Arizona. We get regular rocks, about palm sized, and paint them with a scene or a design using acrylic paints and hide them around so people can find them and hide them somewhere else. Sometimes I'll put a Bible verse on mine. Anyway, I was looking at the clock, couldn't get back to sleep, it was only 1:45AM but there was this nagging thought. "TIA Lord". Wouldn't it be great to paint "TIA Lord" on my rocks! That would be inspirational. Someone might actually say a thanks! And then I gave up and got out of bed, got dressed, brewed my coffee, and went to the computer. And then I found these verses... "Always Pray and Never Give Up".... and I thought... "TIA Lord".It's verse 8 that got to me this morning. I couldn't get a handle on it, so I had to look it up. Enduring word seemed to have the only response I could understand.
When the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth? This ties Jesus’ thought to His words about His coming at the end of the previous chapter. Unless we know who God is (being not like the unjust judge) and unless we are people who pray without losing heart, we don’t yet have the kind of faith Jesus will look for when He returns.
We talk to people online all the time. There are people on my "friends" list who probably don't even exist. We tell them our darkest secrets, share our favorite kitten videos, and lament governmental corruption openly as if they were our best friend. Then we get to the prayer meeting, and we go on and on and on and on about "OH LORD" this and "OH LORD" that... and we're all about form without substance. A simple "thank you Lord" takes twenty minutes because we don't want to appear ignorant. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could just "TIA". For those of you who don't know.... "TIA" is short for "Thanks in advance". If we start each day with a "TIA Lord"... and continue the "TIA Lord" all day long... then we might have a clue about what God wants from us.
God created man so He would have someone to talk to. Sure, we're ignorant, but with a little education we are quite easy to converse with. God gave us a brain and the ability to debate. It's better than God watching dogs sniff butts all day, right? Conversation is more interesting than watching cows chew cud, right? But then we use that brain to thank everyone but God. We converse with faceless strangers on Facebook and ignore God outside of Sunday Services and Wednesday Prayer Meetings or the occasional potluck.
There are some who would say saying "TIA Lord" to God is irreverent. They say we aren't showing Him proper respect. Is ignoring Him respectful? That's what we do. We go about our day being humans, we don't give God a thought unless something scares us or inspires us. God put flowers and pets around for us to enjoy, but we don't thank Him. In church we call Him "Father" and then outside of the physical building we call church, we totally ignore Him. Do you treat your dad like that?
Think of prayer as talking to God. Think of talking to God like registering for a membership. When Jesus comes back, will you be registered? Will a judge "who neither feared God nor cared what people thought" conclude you are a child of God or will you be turned away for failure to register your account?
Here's a thought..... think about what you have to be thankful for.... and then say "TIA Lord". Who knows, it might remind you to talk to God, for a change.
"TIA Lord".
