There are two readings for today.

SCRIPTURE: Psalm 123
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
I lift up my eyes to you, to you who sit enthroned in heaven. As the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a female slave look to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the LORD our God, till he shows us his mercy. [Psalm 123:1-2]
The persistent prayer, looking to the Lord UNTIL He shows us His mercy.
The psalmist describes the fierce determination of a struggling believer refusing to give up when it seems that God does not care, or is not listening.
He pleads with God to act, to respond, to do something… the tone suggests that he has been praying this way for a long time.
But he refuses to give up.

Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. [Luke 18:1]
This Psalm reminds me of the story Jesus told, about a widow fighting for justice and refusing to stop the fight, even though the judge didn’t seem to care [Luke 18:2-8].
Because of her annoying refusal to give up, the unjust judge finally relents to get her off his back.
Now this hardly seems like an analogy for God; but we need to see this as a case of ‘how much more’; if even a sinful judge will relent under pressure, how much more will a loving God respond to a cry for justice and mercy!
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? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. [Luke 18:7-8]

The point of all this is not just to use annoying persistence as a technique to get what we want, but to not give up trusting God even when He seems to delay His response.
Keep on trusting His goodness, His justice, His mercy, even if it takes a long time.
Don’t listen to Satan’s lies that praying and trusting are a waste of time, that God doesn’t care and won’t help.
Express your heart to God, name your struggles and requests before Him, keep on pleading with God for hope and help, even when it takes a long time.
In the words of one famous Disney character: ‘Never give up, never surrender!’

The mystery of God’s will is that while we will not always get what we want, we will always get what we need, and what God does will ultimately always be for the best.
I believe that at the end of time, no one will argue with God over the path He chose for them; when we finally see WHY God did what He did and allowed what He allowed, WHY He seemed to take so long, we will agree that it was for the best.
Jesus’ call to persistent prayer is not a technique for getting what we want, it is our way of saying we trust God, we believe that He is good and will do what is right, and we will hang on to the very end because of it!
This is why we pray and do not give up.
Our eyes look to the LORD our God, till he shows us his mercy. [Psalm 123:2]

PRAYER:
Lord, I want to trust You like this, especially when things get hard!