Prayer as Man’s Original Design

“And He spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint.” — Luke 18:1

You may have heard several expositions on the parable Jesus gave in Luke 18:1: “And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint.” He then told the story of the widow whose continual petition eventually moved the unjust judge to answer her. From this, many have rightly taught the necessity of persistence in prayer. Yet before Jesus gave the parable, Luke introduced it with a statement that is often overlooked: men ought always to pray, and not to faint.

This opening statement is more than an introduction to the parable but a revelation of the nature of man. The words ought always come from the Greek “dei pantote.” Dei speaks of necessity, of something that must be. Pantote means at all times or continually. Prayer, therefore, is not merely one of the many activities of the spiritual life. It is a necessity that belongs to the very constitution of man. Luke, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit (for all Scripture is given by the inspiration of God)—understood that the Lord’s teaching was not simply about persistence, but about the continual obligation of man to remain in prayer.

Before we can understand why persistence in prayer is necessary, we must first understand what prayer is, how it can be continual, why Jesus spoke of man and not merely the believer, and later on in our journey, what it means to faint.

Prayer is defined in its simplest as a communication between God and man. It is the fellowship through which man lives according to the purpose for which he was created. This was first revealed in Eden. After God created man, He placed him in the garden and came to him. Eden was the place of communion. Man was created to live in dependence upon God, exercising dominion over creation while remaining in continual fellowship with his Creator. His strength, wisdom, and life flowed out of that relationship. Communion with God for Adam was not an occasional privilege but the atmosphere in which he existed.

The fall did not begin with the eating of the forbidden fruit. It began with another conversation. Before there was disobedience, there was communion with another voice. For the first time, man gave his attention to a spiritual source outside of God because man was born to communicate with a spirit continually. The conversation with the serpent preceded the corruption of creation. This implies that man cannot sustain the exact likeness of God as he should unless he is talking to God. The fall became the first time man was talking to a deity outside God and that’s what caused fainting. This is why the Lord said that men ought always to pray and not to faint. The word translated faint is the Greek ekkakeō. According to Thayer, it means to lose heart, to become weary, even to become utterly spiritless. Man becomes spiritless whenever he attempts to exist apart from communion with God. Prayer is therefore not simply God’s provision for difficult moments. It is the lifeline of human existence.

Man was created to commune with a spiritual being. There is no neutral ground. If he is not speaking with God, another voice will eventually occupy his attention. The enemy understands this well. When fellowship with God is abandoned, distractions, fears, ambitions, anxieties, and the constant noise of the world begin to shape the heart. It is never a question of whether man is listening. The question is always, to whom is he listening?

This is why Jesus did not say that believers ought always to pray. He said men ought always to pray. Prayer belongs to humanity before it belongs to Christianity. In fact, at the deepest level, every man prays but not to the same “God”. Before man was a worker, a husband, a wife, a parent, a ruler, or a steward of creation, he was created for fellowship with God. Communion was his first responsibility because dependence upon God was his first nature. Any man who abandons that communion inevitably moves toward destruction, for he has departed from the very purpose for which he was made.

Further Reading: Genesis 1:26–28, 2:15–25, 3:1–10, Luke 18:1–8, John 15:4–5