This morning I saw an amazing video clip of an elderly Italian woman discovering the mystery and wonder of Google Home for the first time (you can watch it here below).
Her younger family members were coaching her on how to activate it and then giving her ideas of what to ask… her shock when the little speaker in front of her told her the weather in her hometown was hilarious!
The captions that went along with it were comparing her experience with Google to the experience people have when they are learning how to pray. They’re just starting off with figuring out what to say/how to ask and often there’s a moment of surprise when they hear God actually respond to them for the first time!!
In our previous devotion, Ryan was writing about hearing the voice of God and the way that it led Andrea, Kevin and Ray to be baptized. It was a process for them to learn to hear from God and another process to act on the call to be baptized.
As I was watching this lovely lady’s process of moving from being skeptical about talking to a random object in her house to the shock of actually receiving an answer from it and even further into rushing back to ask a new question – understanding now that the little speaking device on her table knew things?! …I marvelled at the ways it truly was an example of hearing from God.
The captions were focused more on the surprise that took place when the Google Home device actually responded to the woman… but my attention was brought to her excitement and readiness to ask again.
Whether or not you’ve heard God speak to you countless times or you can’t count a single time God has replied to you, my hope for all of us (myself included!) is that we would continue to ask again and again.
In Luke 18:1-8 it says that, “Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up”. He shared with them, the story of a widow who was seeking justice from the judge in her town. Even though the judge was a dishonourable man and had no fear of God or any care of what other people thought, he decided to ensure the widow found justice because he was afraid she would eventually go and attack him!
Of course, Jesus didn’t let the story end there! He reminded his disciples that God is much better to his chosen ones (you and I included!) than that… he challenged them to have faith; to always pray and never give up.
I believe God is challenging us, at Lifespring, to strengthen our faith as well!
- To rush back to our Father in Heaven like that sweet Italian lady rushed back to her Google Home speaker.
- To learn from others about how we can talk to God and then to keep practising on our own.
- To persist in bringing our requests before the Lord, in faith that he will answer.
Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’
“For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”
And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”
Luke 18:1-8
View the video here: