Luke 18:3-9

³A woman lived in that city that had nobody to look after her. Her husband was dead. But a bad man was cheating her. So she came to the judge and said, ‘Your honour, that man is cheating me. Please give me a fair go. Give me a court order to stop him.’

⁴The judge didn’t answer her. He took no notice of her, and he wouldn’t listen to her. But she kept on asking him, and for a while he kept on taking no notice of her. But after a while he said to himself, ‘This woman is driving me mad. Even though I don’t respect God, and I couldn’t care less about people, I will make sure she gets a fair go. I will give her what she wants. If I don’t do that she will keep on asking me, and I’m getting sick of it.’”

⁶Then Jesus said, “That judge was a bad man, but notice what he said to himself. That woman kept on asking him, and in the end, he did the right thing.

⁷Well, God is a lot better than that judge, and God picked you to be his family. So what do you think he will do if you keep calling out to him all the time? Will he wait a while before he does anything?

⁸No. I’m telling you this for sure. God will listen to you, and he will get up quick and he will make sure you get a fair go.” Then Jesus said, “But when I, God’s special man, come back again from heaven to this earth, will I find people trusting me, or not?”

⁹Some people there thought that they were really good, and they rubbished everyone else. They reckoned, “We are so good that God will always say we are all right.” So Jesus told them this picture story. He said,