A widow came before the judge
To ask for his assistance.
That lazy rascal turned away,
Unmoved by her insistence.
refrain
You are God’s children;
He wants what’s best for you.
All you have to do is ask.
Pray without ceasing;
Seek, and you will find.
Knock, and the door will open wide.
That lady kept on coming back;
It broke down his resistance
Till he complied with her request,
Worn out by her persistence.
(refrain)
The Lord’s not like that worthless judge;
He longs to give assistance.
And He will never turn away;
He’s moved by your insistence.
(refrain)
Although you keep on coming back,
You do not meet resistance.
God never tires of listening
To your prayers of persistence.
(refrain)
About This Song:
I used to really marvel at Jesus’s parable about the widow and the wicked judge in Luke 18:1-5:
1 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. 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!’”
(NIV)
But then Jerry Rankin, at that time the President of the International Mission Board, gave a meditation about this parable, and I saw it in a new light. The point is that God is the very opposite of the wicked judge.
Whereas the judge had no relationship with the poor widow who needed his help and finally agreed to help her because she had worn him down, God has a personal relationship with each of His children. Like any earthly father, He wants His children to have the best He has to offer.
The refrain comes from 1 Thessalonians 5:17:
Pray without ceasing.
(NIV)
and Matthew 7:7:
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”
(NIV)
Unlike the wicked judge, God respects our persistence. We don’t have to beg Him for His help, but we do need to ask in the right spirit–“Not my will, but Yours.”
Your comments are always welcome.
Free lead sheets (lyrics, tune, and chords) are available for many of my songs. Click on the Lead Sheets tab at the top of this page to see whether one is available for this song. Videos for many of my songs, some recorded at home and some at our church’s nursing home ministry, can be accessed at my website, RogerBruner.com, under the Listen tab.
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Best regards,
Roger
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As I Come Singing. . . 
I love these lyrics Roger, thank you for sharing
My pleasure, Terry. It’s an interesting song to sing along with because each line in the stanzas is repeated before moving on to the next line. Still bad for people who can’t sing, though. *G*