"Salvation is of the LORD." -Jonah 2:9

In Luke 18:1-8 the Lord Jesus gives us some wonderful instruction on prayer.  In this passage, the Master tells a parable to inform us that, when we pray, we are not to lose heart but to be persistent in asking.   To illustrate this truth, He tells a story of a judge in a certain town who neither feared God nor regarded man. There was also a widow in the same town who kept coming to him and begging him to 'Vindicate me against my adversary .' She evidently had been wronged by someone and continually pleaded with the judge to punish the one who had wronged her.  For some time, the judge refused to do anything about her situation but eventually said to himself, 'I neither fear God nor respect man, but because this woman continually bothers me, I will grant her request, lest by her constant coming to me, she exhausts me.'   The Lord then continues, saying "Listen to what the unjust judge says. And shall God not vindicate His own chosen ones who cry to Hi...

" And Moses said unto the people, Fear not; for God is come to prove you, and that His fear may be before your faces, that you sin not." —Exodus 20:2 [KJV] Pride and self-confidence are deeply rooted in the human heart. False hopes are built on self-righteous pleas. By these the heart is blinded to the exceeding sinfulness of sin; hardened against the fear and dread of the Lord; and such live in rebellion against the truth as in Jesus. Like Paul, we are all naturally alive without the law; and, with the Israelites of old, are ready to say, "All that the L ORD hath spoken we will do." — Exodus 19:8 . Alas! poor souls utter such words of ignorance and pride, when, like the disciples on the mount, "they know not what they say." But whom the Lord loves, He proves. The Lord is a jealous God; He will permit no flesh to glory in His presence; nor shall His dear children live without His fear, and a holy hatred of pride and sin; therefore they mu...