² He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. ³ And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’
⁴ “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, ⁵ yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”
                                                                                                -Luke 18:2-5
 
In the parable, the widow is lined up against a heartless judge. It is her relentlessness that forces his hand.
 
In our own lives, there is a time to let go, give up, leave well enough alone, come to terms with the reality that something is just not going to work out and move on with our lives.  This is an important skill that all of us have to employ at some point, and perhaps that’s the work you need to do today.
 
But for most of us the difficult thing is not quitting, it’s enduring.
 
Jesus doesn’t tell us what motivated the widow to continue to persist with her request before the cruel judge. Maybe she trusted that God would do something eventually. Maybe she just didn’t have anywhere else to turn.  Maybe she had the spiritual gift of doggedly not caring what someone else thinks.
 
Regardless, Jesus tells us this story that we might emulate the widow in prayer.  But for just one moment, let’s zoom out and make application more broadly: what do you need to stick with today? Do you have a God-given task in orbit around you that you’re getting weary of but God hasn’t released you from it yet?
 
Here’s a prayer that you might try: “Lord Jesus, give me your resurrection resilience to do the work that you’ve prepared in advance for me to do today.”  Jesus was remarkably resilient—you don’t get any more resilient than bouncing back from your own death! That resurrection resilience dwells in us if Christ does.
 
The persistent widow was resilient in the face of rejection day in and day out.  Today, pray that Jesus might give you his resurrection resilience in the face of your own challenges, set-backs and difficult work.
 
Take a minute to pray for resurrection resilience to flow in you and through you as you re-engage whatever work you’re growing weary of today.