She heaved a sigh and said, "Why bother? There’s no winning in this one. You just can’t fight city hall." For months had tried to get a certain ruling changed, but to no avail. Endless electronic messaging systems, unanswered emails, recitations of certain by-laws. "I’m sorry, madam. But that’s how it is. No exceptions, I’m afraid."
        You can’t fight city hall. Or the tax man. Or the principal of your school.
                At least, that’s what they say.

Institutions perceived to have all the power and the momentum.
Things simply CANNOT be changed from what they decree will happen.
        So when something comes your way from one of these sources, best to simply swallow it and get on as best you can. ‘Cause you can’t fight them or change things, anyway.

Which, by the way, may be the same attitude we could develop towards our relationship with God when it comes to the world of prayer, to our relationship with and our dependance on Him.
        What’s going to happen is going to happen anyway.
        Doesn’t matter what you say or do.
        Best to simply swallow it and get on as best you can.
        ‘Cause you can’t fight heaven or change things, anyway.

What do you think?

Islam would tell you, "Allah wills it. Do not fight it."
Certain philosophers would say, "God is the Great Unmoved Mover. He puts the universe into action. But He himself does not move. He simply cannot be changed. What is set to be, will be."

What do we say as Christians?
And, as a group of believers known as Reformed Christians, what do we say?

One of the items that is imbedded in the foundation of our belief system is a trust and acknowledgement of the Sovereignty of God.
        He is supreme.
        No power can topple or shake Him.
        King.
        All knowing, all wise, all present, all pure, all powerful......
        Sovereign
                God.

Perhaps, then, the prayers that you sent heaven-ward at home this morning, and the prayers that were an important part of our worship service were more for our benefit than God’s.
        Could that be?

Perhaps prayers are designed to be a religious psychological tool to hone our sense of dependance on the Lord; make us aware of our limitations; help us focus and find a spiritual centre and level of peace.
        Could that be?

Prayers to a sovereign God...... how are we to understand them?

For fully reliable direction we will listen to God’s Word.
I invite you to follow along as Tim reads to us words of Jesus.
Let us hear the Son of God tell a story, a parable.

A judge.... and a widow.
        People listening to Jesus would have been able to immediately paint such a scene in their mind. They’d seen it so many times. Too many times.

        Judges were somewhat reclusive. Very few people could actually get to see him directly. A typical day in court saw him sit in pomp and finery. Around him sit his assistants, holding back a mob of town commonfolk with various concerns. Impatient to get this noisy, uncouth mob off his hands, he asks for the name and concern of the first person. And the name of the individual able to give the biggest bribe is handed across and his matter settled in a brusque, offhand manner. Come mid-day, tired of common complaints and the troubles of others, the judge orders his assistants to clear the room, and retires to an afternoon of rest and comfort, oblivious to the struggles of others.
        This judge fears nothing and nobody. There was, it seemed, no effective weapon to break through his impregnable armour. There is no spiritual appeal, and his moral sensitivity is completely lost for his fellow human being.

        Then there’s the widow, the most defenseless and weakest of persons in ancient Eastern society, totally open to being coerced and manipulated and ground into the dirt.
        She was too weak to compel anyone to move on her behalf, and too poor to bribe her way into getting a hearing from the judge. In addition, custom dictated that courts were a man’s domain -- no matter what scripture said about widows getting the same right of justice as any man.

So, having been treated illegally and unfairly by someone, she attempts to gain the attention of the judge’s assistants to book an appointment. Only to be met by, "We don’t do that here. Only men allowed."

Barely listening to what she has to say, much as one vaguely hears a dog barking in the background, the assistant calls out, "next case." She is left in the glare of the burning sun.

This woman knows her rights.
She knows the judge has a basic responsibility to give her what she is demanding - a fair shake. And she begins to call out.
        Softly at first, but soon louder. Her voice growing horse, she persists. Finally, when she thinks herself unable to continue, an irritated judge, as one seeking to be rid of a pesky mosquito in a pup tent, calls out, "What do you want?"
        Her case is heard.
        She receives her do.

Jesus paints this scene.
His listeners immediately resonate with it.
And he uses that familiarity to build a study in contrasts, one between:
        - the corrupt, hard judge and the needy widow, on one hand
        - God in heaven and their own needs on the other.

Just as much as the judge tried to avoid the issue, and just as much as the widow had to fight her way forward, inch by inch, to get a hearing - just as much as they were on one side of the pendulum
        so equally
        way on the other side
                Is the relationship between the Lord and His people;
                between the Father in Heaven and His children on earth.
So quickly is He willing to grant them entrance to His presence.
So equally greatly is God willing to hear His children.
So certain is He to act for their well-being, in response to their pleas.

As much as the judge was uncaring, seemingly deaf and unmovable
So much is God caring, listening and acting.
Which is why Jesus, on another occasion, said -

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened." [Luke 11.9-10]

"Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need."

Prayers to a sovereign God.
        I hear echos from the Old Testament ringing in response to our questions. Does God respond? Could He, possibly even, be convinced to change His mind..... at least as best as we see and understand things?
                Could He?

Moses and God are on Mt.Sinai.
The people of Israel have gone off on an idoltry and party binge around a golden calf. God’s anger boils over and He tells Moses, "Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them....."
        Moses begs, pleads, prays for God to change His mind. "Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people....."
        The Bible records – "Then the Lord relented and did not bring on His people the disaster He had threatened."
                He relented –
                        changed His mind.

God does listen.
God does act.

He has the power to respond.
He has the desire to respond.
He does respond.

Which is why the prophet Habakkuk could send prayers heavenward, and then step back to say, "I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what He will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint." [Hab 2.1]

Peter Wagner points out - The sovereign God has established a law of prayer. God deisres to do many things, but He will not do them unless or until Christian people, using their God-appointed role in life as His Kingdom servants and workers, pray and ask Him to do it. [Churches That Pray p.43]
        That’s why James writes, "You do not have, because you do not ask God." [James 4:2]
        Such praying and asking and pleading with God is not a violation of obedience and submission to His sovereign will. It’s exactly the opposite. Such prayers are precisely what Sovereign God desires from His people.

Wagner continues on to make an important distinction.
God is sovereign and no one can change Him - who He is, His power.
        BUT
Our prayers can have a direct influence on what God does or does not do.
        His decisions can, and do change.
        The Bible demonstrates that.

Why?
Why this rather large,
        almost imposingly important role of prayer in the life of the believer?
Simply because this is how God structured reality.
This is how He has ordered and willed it to be.

As Al VanderGriend writes,

"God waits to be asked not because He is powerless but because of the way He has chosen to exercise His will. We are not pawns on a giant chessboard. We are involved. Only a cold, hard, mechanistic view of God’s sovereignty and predestination assumes that God discounts our prayer and simply moves in accord with a predetermined once-for-all plan. This is not a biblical view of God; it more resembles a fatalistic, Muslim-like view of sovereignty that the Bible repudiates."
[Praying Church Sourcebook, p.7]

One more important piece we want to fit into the puzzle this morning.
I’m reminded of a quote from John Calvin – "No disease is more dangerous than arrogance." That’s true anywhere in life, but especially in our prayers to God. And so, whenever we pray, we do so with the attitude and heart that Christ teaches in the Lord’s Prayer.
Remember the opening words?
        "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
        Your kingdom come, your will be done...."

The teaching guide which we use in the Christian Reformed Church, the Heidelberg Catechism, has a large chunk devoted to the Lord’s Prayer, helping us understand it’s full meaning. One of the things that the Catechism points out again and again is that these words – "Hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done....." are, in one sense, our prayer for God’s influence to sweep right over the globe.
        BUT, says the Catechism, it all begins in our heart. MY heart.

May my living - thinking, speaking, acting - holy your reputation and name.
May my living - thinking, speaking, acting - be in submission to your kingly rule.
May my living - thinking, speaking, acting - be under your will, rather than MINE.

"Your will be done" is not the passive end of the line for Christian prayers to a sovereign God.
        No.
        They are the starting point. The point of submission. The point of recognizing that God is God, and we are not. End of discussion.
        God is God..... meaning that as we pray, earnestly, believing, trusting that His power is great and working, active in love, justice and faithfulness for us –
                we become willing to leave the final result in His hand; the outcome as He turns it; the timing according to His calendar.
                        As one person prayed, "Whatever, Lord."

Which brings us back to Luke 18. And the closing words of Jesus to his audience, which includes us.
        "However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?"

Simply meaning, will there be people of faith who, having heard of the willingness of sovereign God to act, actually take Him up on it;
        actually pray...... and keep praying –
                will they be there?

Jesus provides no answer.
That is our task.
We must answer
        by our actions in the week to come.