Series: Talking With My Father

Luke 18:8 (KJV)

“Itell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?”

“Nevertheless / yet”

• A strong contrast marker: “yet / nevertheless / even so.”
• It functions like: “God will vindicate—nevertheless…”(introducing a sobering end-time question).

“When the Son of man cometh”

• Son of Man is Jesus’ well-known title (Dan. 7 background), and here it’s explicitly tied to His coming (a return / arrival context).

“shall he find”

• Straight meaning: will he find / discover / encounter.

“faith”—(tēn pistin) = “the faith”

Means:

• persevering faith
• enduring trust
• believing without seeing

Two ways to look at this: (both can be defended by the Greek phrase “the faith”):

1. Saving faith / genuine faith that endures to the end
2. Faithfulness (ongoing steadfast trust expressed by persevering prayer)

Monday Morning Moment: Prayer does not always lead us to the answer we want, but it ALWAYS leads us to the Father! (Who ALWAYS has the answer we need!)

“Where is the promise of His coming?”—the haters/scoffers

2 Peter 3:3–4 (KJV)

“Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers…And saying, Where is the promise of his coming?”

2 Peter 3:11–12 (KJV)

“…whatmanner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,

Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day ofGod…”

THE SOBERING QUESTION

The question is not “Will God answer?”

The question is “Will you still be praying when He does?”

Romans 8:26 – 28 (KJV)

²⁶Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

²⁷And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

²⁸And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

From the book Talking with My Father:

“Paul reminds us in Romans 12 that we often do not know what to pray for, but God knows. He knows because He is a father, and He also knows when to answer in the particular way we have asked and when that may not be the best thing to do, or even the possible thing to do, under the circumstances.

From our perspective and in terms of what we want, God’s answer may seem delayed. But if we could see our lives from a heavenly perspective, we would see that what Jesus tells us in Luke 18 is true: God’s answer to our prayers is not delayed at all.”