Faithful Servant,That is my favorite part of the chapter too. Coming to Jesus with childlike faith. I also thank you for how you put that to my attention that we not become too confident in our own efforts. Turning to God, just as the widow did to let him avenge and help us in our efforts.
We can do the second parable there also if you want to. ? I see how they go together, the same way you do.
Luke18:15 And they brought unto him also infants, that he would touch them: but when his disciples saw it, they rebuked them.
18:16 But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. 18:17 Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein.
Virtual_Cliff, I have never thought of the possibility of the widows husband being murdered by the adversary. Good insight.
When I see faith, I see " I can win, I will win and I have already won"
When I see doubt I see "I might win and I might lose."
Faith is a pure substance to me and if I allow doubt mixed with faith I end up with a wobbling effect of maybe or maybe not.
Childlike faith has no doubt in it.
I am seeing doubt as a hesitation, wavering, perplexed and even discerning.
Are you seeing doubt as being aware of obstacles that we overcome? and that is why you say face the doubts and grow?
Doubt, however, is a weakness in our faith. It is a telltale sign that we need to exercise that area and grow stronger and healthier.
Doubt is needed, because it helps us to grow stronger in faith (by getting past or through the doubt).
In Highschool, there was a Senior named John. Though a very good athelete, he did not fit in tight with the the other guys in his gym class, because they were foot ball players, and John swam for the school team.
One day, when gym class began, the students found a single suspended hand ring about 10 feet off the floor, and below it a set of foam mats. Next to the mats was a harness attached to a rope which ran to a double pulley in the ceiling and back to the floor. In back of the mats was a spring board. The coach/gym teacher came out and said "Today, we are going for the brass ring", then explained the rules.
With harness attached, and the rope being held by the class, a person would run and spring off the board and try to catch the brass ring. The object was to focus comepletely on catching the ring, and letting the class holding the harness rope keep the ring catcher from falling to the ground, should he miss the ring.
At first there were quite a few misses, but the class held the harness rope tight so no one landed on the floor. This of course gave everyone a sense of comradarie and a part in helping the ring catcher gain confidence. John was right their with the rest of the class holding the rope, while one by one the other class mates eventually caught the ring, and the cheers of his peers.
Finally it was John's turn. He wanted that ring, and he wanted to catch it on the first try. He had seen and participated in maintaining the harness rope, so knew his class mates would hold him up if he missed. He began his run and launched from the spring board...
John launched so hard, he flew over the ring, barely grabbed it and tried to keep hold but his body was moving out of countrol through the air. Everything happened so fast, people were shouting, and John was on the gym floor (past the mats) staring at the ceiling, his arm broken.
John's swim season/career was over, and so was his trust in his class mates. Whether by accident or deliberateness, they hadn't held the rope for him and it cost him dearly.
John's arm healed, and in the second half of his school year he took a student/teacher position in the gym, assisting the coach with other student classes. Of the many events the students participated in, there was the "brass ring" grab too. John, oversaw this event, but he insisted that he always be part of the team that held the harness rope. The coach, being a wise man, knew there was much more going on in John's mind than safety for the ring catcher. There was doubt, and faith, and it was a bad combination, for the wrong reasons. John doubted the others could do the job and had faith that he was the only one who could be trusted not to let the ring catcher fall.
One morning, before school began, the coach walked into the gym and saw John gazing at the "brass ring", just staring at it. The coach quietly walked up to John, harness rope in hand. "You're not alone. I'm here John". John, smiled and shook his head then started to walk away. The coach quietly said, "You may fall John, but I will not let you hit the ground."
So John put on the harness. He ran for the spring board and launched for the ring, but his focus was not on the the ring, but on the floor, and he missed it and fell, and hung suspended a few feet off the wood surface of the gym floor.
The coach helped him out of the harness, and smiled. "One day, you will reach for the ring and will catch it, because you'll realize you are not alone, and you won't be allowed to hit the ground, just like you wouldn't let the other kids hit the ground."
John graduated and went off to college, then the war started, and John enlisted. Because of his skills and strength as a swimmer, he was assigned to recon with special forces, and found himself in the mountains of the enemy.
The "mountaineers" job was to comb the mountains for caves that the enemy could hide in. This required scaling and repelling up and down face cliffs as well as rigging zip lines to cross gulleys and chasms.
During one such patrol, the team John was part of was ambushed by the enemy hiding in two such caves. The fire fight was intense and John got seperated from the rest of his team, with several enemy fighters hot on his tail, as he tried to make it back to base camp, where re-enforcements would come to his aid. As he rounded the base of a sheer face and onto a cliff hanger (ledge), he realized he had no where else to go, no place to hide, and no way to go back.
Then he saw the "zip line" stretching across the gulch. But the zip line's hand hold was hanging over the gulch, ten feet away from the edge he was standing on. The enemy fighters were closing in fast, their voices echoing across the gulch.
And there was another voice, familiar and trusting that said,
"One day, you will reach for the ring and will catch it, because you'll realize you are not alone, and you won't be allowed to hit the ground, just like you wouldn't let the other kids hit the ground..."
John jumped for the ring...
And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;
