In Luke 18:1-8, Jesus shares the parable of the poor widow seeking the Judge for legal protection from her adversary. Being a widow, and not having a husband to help or protect her, her request came from a very sincere and burdened heart. She had a clear need to keep persevering for her request.
We’ve shared before… If we look at the parable we can compare it to our lives. God is likened to the Judge, we are like the widow and Satan is the opponent.
Interesting that the Window’s request was for ‘Legal’ protection from her adversary.
The fact that the widow asked for ‘legal’ protection from her opponent caused me to ponder on this point. Why would she ask for legal protection?
The Kingdom of God is a place which does not have any geographical boundaries. Jesus said it is within us and therefore amongst us (Luke 17:20-21). Within this Kingdom, God reigns. His Kingdom operates according to His principles, much like a country operates on governmental laws.
If a person is not obeying the laws of the country they live in, then they are operating illegally or contrary to the law. Chances are that this person’s life will be miserable as they accumulate fines and are constantly in trouble with those charged with upholding the law – be it police, tax organizations or financial institutions.
The Kingdom of God operates in a very similar way. Imagine a court room where God is the judge, Jesus is the advocate and Satan the prosecutor? A young woman enters the courtroom and stands in the witness box. As her advocate and intercessor, Jesus stands next to her. The purpose of her visit is to request something from God (the Judge). The lady proceeds to ask God for her request. As she finishes, Satan begins his cross examination by saying that she has come to the court room to request help from God, but as she stands, she is guilty of other offenses.
“My Lord, if you are able to grant this woman her request and she is guilty of other offenses” shouts the accuser, …” then you should be able to grant ME my requests!”
God is desiring to grant this lady her request but because she stands before him guilty of other offenses, He is bound by His own law and will not be able to help her at that time. God is unable to find ‘legal’ protection for her.
It is very probable that in our lives today, we continually do things which do not please God. When we go to God in prayer requesting help, it is also possible that the accuser accuses us of those things and God is not able to help us.
Jesus came to this earth to take away all our sin – past, present and future – as well as the old sinful nature that drives us there. If we are genuinely sorry for the things we have done that don’t please God, we receive immediate forgiveness from Him. Therefore, those things are not there for the accuser to use against us. However, if we have not genuinely turned away from those things, we leave ourselves open to the Devil’s accusations and our prayer requests being hindered (Psa.66:18).
Let’s ask the Lord to help us see, by the power of His Spirit, the things deep in our hearts which do not please Him. Ask Him to purify our lifestyles to the point where we can freely stand in the court room of prayer and confidently place our requests at our Judges feet, without fear of the prosecutor accusing us.
Because Satan is constantly wanting to disrupt our lives, we need to be constantly asking God for His ‘legal’ protection, not only for us, but for all our situations and loved ones – all the time.
The accuser of the brethren has a limited time left to cause havoc in the earth before our gracious Father will banish him forever, so he will be busy – but remember, we HAVE legal protection.
Thanks for reading…Bless you all as the Master shares His heart with us during the coming week….until next time.