The Prayer of Importunity - AKA Why Doesn't My Husband Have a Job Yet?

 A week ago, our pastor's father, who himself is a retired pastor of over 35 years, spoke at our church on what he called, "The prayer of importunity."  Now that's a word I'd never heard before and I was fascinated by it. Over the last week this message has been brought to my mind more times than I can count and when it returned to my mind this morning, after reading today's LGG blog post, I decided it was time I shared my musings with you. 

 The biblical prayer that this message, and my subsequent musings, were based on can be found in Luke 18:1-8. In this passage, Jesus tells a story, a parable, about a widow who had a great need. She sought out the local judge who, unfortunately, was a person who feared neither God nor man, to get the justice she so desperately required. Being this type of person, he had no intention of granting the widow's request, but she didn't give up, and so eventually he gave in, not because he had had a change of heart or saw the light, but, "because this widow keeps on bothering me, I will give her justice, or in the end she will wear me out by her unending pleas." And this is where this unfamiliar word, "importunity," comes in. While I had never heard it, my old friend Webster knew about it back in 1828:

IMPORTU'NITY, noun [Latin importunitas.]

Pressing solicitation; urgent request; application for a claim or favor, which is urged with troublesome frequency or pertinacity. Men are sometimes overcome by the importunity of their wives or children.

 I even liked Bing's definition, "persistence, especially to the point of annoyance." This isn't just a regular, healthy check-in to hold you accountable, this is downright irritating! This is the child in the grocery store begging for a candy bar over, and over, and over, and over until you either give in or go nuts!

 So, is Jesus saying that God is like this unjust judge? Certainly not! What He is saying is that if even an unjust judge will give in to importunity, how much more will our Heavenly Father who loves us and wants the best for us hear our desperate and unflagging pleas? Jesus introduces this parable with the admonition that, "they should always pray and not lose heart." (Luke 18:1). In his commentary on Blue Letter Bible, David Guzik points out that it is easy to lose heart in prayer for a variety of reasons: 

• Prayer is hard work that we often approach too lightly
• The devil hates prayer and makes it more difficult for us
• We are not always convinced of the reality of the power of prayer

  If God loves us so much, why doesn't He just answer our first prayer? Why do we have to come to Him over and over and over again? The first and best answer to this is because He knows best. Just plain, straight-up honesty. God sometimes sees that it would be best for the answer to our prayers to come later, but He doesn't want us to give up hope or forget what we were appealing to Him for, so He tells us to keep praying. Why do we have to wait? Maybe the answer to your prayer isn't ready yet. I have a friend who, as an adult, began praying for a wife with strong desire but didn't see fruit for ten years. Turns out his wife was still in middle school when he started praying so it makes sense that he had to wait! We've been praying persistently for my husband to find a job for nearly six months now without seeing any fruit. Perhaps the job he is supposed to have hasn't even been listed yet, maybe it hasn't been created. The other aspect of long-term prayer is that it doesn't just work towards the ultimate goal we are seeking, it also works in us. Prayer changes us, not just our situations. Perhaps God hasn't answered our prayer yet because we aren't ready for the answer yet! Maybe the perfect job was out there in May, but God knew that we needed to see dozens upon dozens of other job listings before we could recognize it. Maybe He needed to show us that He could provide for us financially apart from a job - that He is our provider not my husband's employer. Maybe we needed to walk through some of the many life situations we have over the last six months without a job so that we were more available, or maybe those situations continued to shape us to be in the right place for the right job. There's a lot of maybes!

Here's the Thing: I can trust God. I can trust Him to put things together in just the right way in just the right timing. I can trust God to prepare my husband and myself for the job He has intended as well as prepare my husband's future employer to appreciate his unique qualifications and skills. I can trust Him to take care of us today, tomorrow, and every day - even after He's provided a job. And as I wait, I will pray the prayer of importunity!