9.2-Are you losing heart?

9.2-

Pray.
Pray for protection.
Pray for those who don't fear God to start fearing Him.
Pray if you are a powerless widow, because God will give you power.
Pray if you are in the hands of an unrighteous legal system that God will pour out His justice.

I heard during John McCain's funeral about a guard who had come into his cell on a Christmas day and tied his hands behind him as tight as he could be tied.  He was hurting.  In the middle of the night a different guard came for his shift.  During the middle of that silent night he loosened his restraints.  He then left John alone in this night.  Later another guard came on duty and tightened his restraints.  After a while he wondered why this had happened.  He later saw that guard come into his cell and on the dirt floor he took his foot and without a word he answered John's look by scratching out in the dirt at cross.

Christmas begins in poverty in a place where there was no room for God's son in the inn.  The story takes a hard turn on that cross of pain.  That cross has kept so many of God's best going in hard times.
Never lose heart.
Pray. Pray. Pray.

Luke 17.

18 Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart, ² saying, “In a certain city there was a judge who did not fear God and did not respect man. ³ There was a widow in that city, and she kept coming to him, saying, ‘^[a]Give me legal protection from my opponent.’ ⁴ For a while he was unwilling; but afterward he said to himself, ‘Even though I do not fear God nor respect man, ⁵ yet because this widow bothers me, I will ^[b]give her legal protection, otherwise by continually coming she will ^[c]wear me out.’” ⁶ And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge *said; ⁷ now, will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, ^[d]and will He delay long over them? ⁸ I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find ^[e]faith on the earth?”