Bible Parables S3E5: The Parable Of The Persistent Widow

The Parable of the Persistent Widow Then he spoke a parable to them,

That men always ought to pray and not lose heart,

Saying,

There was in a certain city a judge,

Who did not fear God,

Nor regard man.

Now there was a widow in that city,

And she came to him,

Saying,

Get justice for me from my adversary.

And he would not for a while,

But afterward he said within himself,

Though I do not fear God,

Nor regard man,

Yet because this widow troubles me,

I will avenge her,

Lest by her continual coming she weary me.

Then the Lord said,

Hear what the unjust judge said,

And shall not God avenge his own elect,

Who cry out day and night to him,

Though he bears long with them?

I tell you that he will avenge them speedily.

Nevertheless,

When the Son of Man comes,

Will he really find faith on the earth?

And that's the parable of the persistent widow.

And we will now go into a sentence by sentence interpretation of this parable.

And the interpretation is more from a spiritual,

A metaphysical point of view.

And the parable starts,

Then he spoke a parable to them,

That men always ought to pray and not lose heart.

And this is your invitation.

This sentence is your invitation.

Your invitation to spiritual resilience.

Pray here doesn't necessarily mean reciting words.

But in this context,

Pray means keeping your attention anchored in trust,

Anchored in alignment,

And anchored in possibility.

You're applying for jobs,

But you hear silence,

You feel invisible.

But instead of collapsing,

Instead of giving in to the things that you want not happening,

You take a few minutes in the morning,

You visualize yourself in the role.

You breathe into the sense of already having it.

Or you're in a difficult relationship.

Communication feels broken.

But you continue to affirm to yourself that healing is possible.

Love can speak here.

So this first sentence,

It's like an analogy.

It's like watering a seed in the soil.

When we water a seed in the soil,

We don't dig it up every day to check if it's growing.

We simply trust the process and we keep tending to the soil.

So that's why we are told to pray and not lose heart.

So creating a prayer habit is not just about asking.

Because sometimes when we pray in the traditional sense,

It's all about asking.

I want this or I want that or I want this to happen or I want that to happen.

But prayer here is about alignment.

And prayer can be like doing your morning breath work.

Prayer can be a mantra before sleep.

Or prayer can also be journaling your higher self.

You get to decide what kind of prayer aligns with you.

And the parable goes on.

There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man.

The judge represents our outer world.

The judge also represents our own rational cynical mind.

The judge doesn't care about our dreams.

The judge responds only to logic,

Only to repetition,

Only to force.

It is that resistant part of life.

Bureaucracy,

Silence,

Delay.

The judge keeps coming up in our daily life.

We want to publish our poetry but we keep getting rejected.

The world feels unmovable.

The world feels unmoved.

Or we are trying to shift a habit.

Let's say emotional eating.

And your mind throws up resistance.

It's not that bad.

You're going to fail anyway.

So think of the judge as a stone wall.

Not cruel,

Simply inert.

And what do we need to do to shift stone?

To shift stone,

We need persistence,

Not pleading.

So when you hit inner resistance or you hit outer silence,

Try to label it.

This is my judge.

I don't need it to care.

I simply need to stay steady.

And the parable moves on.

Now there was a widow in that city and she came to him saying,

Get justice for me from my adversary.

The widow.

The widow is the archetype of vulnerability,

Sacred vulnerability and also sacred power.

The widow has no protector.

The widow has no worldly influence,

But still the widow speaks.

She asks.

She shows up.

The widow is the part of us that has been hurt.

The part of us that is unseen.

The part of us that has been abandoned,

But is still brave enough to want healing.

The widow shows up in our daily life.

The widow shows up when we are standing up to a toxic boss.

Or we are writing our truth in a memoir or blog post,

Afraid of being misunderstood,

But still needing to be seen.

Or we are daring to love again after heartbreak.

The widow is like the child inside us who still hopes.

The widow is the voice that says,

Even if the world is cold,

I still choose to care.

So let your inner widow speak.

What part of you feels powerless?

And what is that part of you asking for?

The parable moves on.

And he would not for a while,

But afterward he said within himself,

Though I do not fear God nor the God-man.

And this sentence is about change.

Change doesn't happen instantly.

Even when we are doing all the right things,

Change rarely happens instantly.

There's always a delay.

There's always this spiritual or psychological time lag between intent and effect.

So in your daily life,

We've been meditating,

We've been affirming,

We've been doing the work,

But we still feel stuck.

Or we've been in therapy for months and we wonder why we are still reacting in the same way.

So like water,

Like water that slowly carves a canyon,

Invisible at first,

But unstoppable.

Our subconscious doesn't respond to wishes,

But it responds to the felt truth,

Which we repeat steadily.

And the parable goes on.

Yet,

Because this widow troubles me,

I will avenge her,

Lest by her continual coming she weary me.

And this is the turning point of the parable.

The judge,

Which we can think of as the system or the habit or the external conditions.

The judge yields,

Not because the judge cares,

But simply because the widow's persistence creates momentum.

You can think of this as neuroplasticity.

You can think of this as how affirmations work.

Because in neuroplasticity,

We are told that the brain literally rewires with sustained,

Repeated belief and emotion.

It's also like the law of attraction.

Your reality confirms to inner conviction when you hold it steadily.

Sometimes in life,

You might notice these synchronicities.

Like you sit and you're visualizing a healthy body and the right doctor just happens to appear.

Or you've been affirming abundance and unexpectedly a freelance opportunity lands in your inbox.

So this persistence,

It's like dripping water on stone.

It seems like it will not have any impact because it's just one drop of water.

But this one drop of water over a period of time,

It reshapes even the hardest surface.

And the parable goes on.

Then the Lord said,

Hear what the unjust judge said.

And in the parable,

This is simply Jesus saying,

Did you hear that?

Even something cold and indifferent responds to persistence.

And now imagine how much more powerful your intention can be when it is aligned with love,

When it is aligned with life,

When it is aligned with God or the creative mind.

So resistance responds to spiritual consistency.

The universe,

Life is not deaf.

It's deliberate.

It's very deliberate.

And the parable goes on.

And shall God not avenge his own elect who cry out day and night to him,

Though he bears long with them?

God or source or divine mind or the creative mind,

Whatever you wish to call it,

Is not indifferent.

Delay is not denial.

But sometimes the process must clear space,

Must remove blocks or must align timing.

So in our daily life,

Maybe that relationship hasn't come to us yet because we are still learning to love ourselves.

Or the money hasn't come to us yet because in our subconscious,

We are still equating wealth with guilt.

So you can think of it like cooking a meal.

We can't rush it.

If we try to rush a meal,

It burns.

The kitchen of the universe is slow.

It takes its time.

It has its process.

But every ingredient that goes into it is meaningful.

And the parable ends with,

I tell you that he will avenge them speedily.

Nevertheless,

When the son of man comes,

Will he really find faith on the earth?

So the question here is not whether God or the law or the mind responds to you.

The question is,

Will you stay in faith long enough to receive it?

And this is the core test.

Are you willing to remain in alignment even when there's no proof?

In our daily life,

Sometimes we are doing this inner work.

And there are those times we get tempted to fall back,

To fall back into hopelessness.

To fall back into blame.

Or we are this close to a breakthrough and then fear whispers.

Maybe it's never coming.

It's like you're tuned into a radio station.

It's like a radio dial.

If you turn off the station just before the song plays,

We miss the music altogether.

So just to summarize this parable in a few lines,

The widow is not weak.

The judge is not your enemy.

Silence is not a no.

And the delay is not rejection.

The invitation of this parable as I see it is,

We are being invited to be so rooted in our inner truth that the outer world must eventually confirm to your faith.

So we will now go into a guided meditation based on the same parable.

So if you're sleeping,

Let yourself sink into your bed.

If you're sitting,

Feel the surface that you're sitting on,

Feel it supporting you.

If it's safe to do so and if you're comfortable doing so,

You can close your eyes or alternatively you could simply lower your gaze towards the floor and take a deep breath in and let it go.

Take another deep breath in and let it go.

Let it go as though you're letting go of all striving.

Take another deep breath in and let it go.

And let it go.

And feel yourself settling.

Feel the ground beneath you.

It's solid.

It's stable.

You are supported.

You are safe.

Let the outer world fall away and enter into a sacred inner space.

And in your mind's eye,

In your mind's eye,

Imagine you are walking into an ancient stone city.

It's quiet and it's still under the early morning sun.

And you see a woman standing at the gate of a tall building.

Her clothes are simple.

Her face is lined with determination.

This is the widow.

A symbol of your deepest longing.

The part of you that feels separated from what it desires yet refuses to give up.

What is the part of you that feels what does she want?

Pause and let that arise.

What is your inner widow seeking right now?

What desire has lived quietly in your heart waiting to be seen?

Waiting to be heard?

Waiting to be answered?

Let the answer come without forcing it.

Now follow the widow as she enters the tall building.

The inner court of justice.

The air is still.

You enter a washed chamber,

High ceiling and echoing.

At the far end sits the judge.

Not a man,

Not a woman,

But a symbol.

This is your outer world.

This is your rational mind.

These are your subconscious habits.

The part of you that may seem unmoved,

Unwilling to change.

The judge looks down without emotion,

Cold.

Detached and yet the judge listens.

The widow walks forward and speaks clearly.

Grant me justice from my adversary.

Hear those words in your own voice now.

Speak them silently.

Grant me resolution,

Healing,

Fulfillment,

Clarity.

Name the adversary.

Maybe it's fear,

Doubt,

Scarcity,

Illness or a specific situation.

Name it.

And now see yourself standing with the widow.

You are both the petitioner and the power.

The judge does not respond.

But the widow returns again and again and again.

And you realize that this is the practice of spiritual persistence.

You are not begging.

You are declaring.

You are impressing a truth upon the law.

And the law has no choice but to respond.

Breathe into this realization.

Visualize yourself returning to this inner court daily.

Calm,

Centered,

Unwavering,

Declaring truth,

Not hoping but knowing.

Let an affirmation rise from deep within you.

And you might say silently.

What I seek is already mine in divine mind.

I persist in truth.

I live in the answer.

My desire is heard and the law responds.

If you have your own chosen phrase,

Repeat it gently.

Repeat it as a rhythm with your breath.

Feel it settling in your heart.

Into your subconscious like seeds planted in receptive soil.

And now in this vision something shifts.

The judge leans forward.

The judge speaks.

Because you have persisted,

I will grant you justice.

And in that moment you feel something open.

Not in the courtroom but within you.

A deep calm.

A certainty.

A spiritual yes.

You do not need to chase the answer anymore.

It is already unfolding.

In right timing.

In right form.

Feel the faith that lives beyond sight.

And now gently allow the vision to fade.

Come back to your breath.

Soft.

Steady.

Peaceful.

And know that you can return to this inner court at any time.

Your desire is not weakness.

It is power.

And your persistence is not struggle.

It is alignment.

And let gratitude arise.

Let gratitude arise not for what is coming but for what already is.

And take a deep breath.

Wiggle your fingers.

Wiggle your toes.

And when you are ready,

You can open your eyes.

So the parable of the persistent widow.

So based on this parable,

What action can we take?

What action can we take in our daily life?

So firstly,

Choose your widow.

As in,

Clarify your desire.

What do you truly seek?

Spend some time reflecting.

What do I really want?

What is that longing that persists in me that I haven't honoured fully?

And the action that you can take is simply to write that down in an affirmative sentence.

Whatever your desire is,

Write it in an affirmative sentence.

And it could look like I am ready to live in radiant health.

Or my work is seen,

Valued and well compensated.

Another action that you could take is you could do a seven-day persistence practice.

In the same way as the widow returned daily to the judge,

Every day for seven days,

You create that daily sacred moment where you return to your desire.

You sit in quiet,

Affirm that your desire is already true,

Feel its reality,

Speak it aloud or visualise it with emotion and give thanks for it in advance.

It's like some of my favourite teachers would say,

Like Neville Goddard would say,

Assume that feeling of the wish fulfilled.

Or Ernest Holmes would say,

Declare,

Declare is that it as truth,

Declare your desire as truth.

Or Murphy would say,

Impress the subconscious,

Impress the subconscious with your desire.

So a seven-day persistence practice,

Living in the feeling of the wish fulfilled.

Another action that you could take as you go about your day is observing that inner judge.

Observing that inner judge without reacting to it,

Being the witness of yourself.

So when doubt,

When delay,

When discouragement pops up,

Recognise that that is the judge showing up.

It may seem indifferent,

But your consistent inner work is reshaping it.

Observe that inner judge without reacting.

Another action that you could take is,

Live as though it's already granted.

How do I do this?

If you want love in your life,

Start by smiling at strangers.

If you're looking for abundance in your life,

Start giving generously.

If you're praying for healing,

Eat,

Speak,

Move as someone who is already healed.

So let your desire become devotion.

Let your persistence become prayer.

And let that,

Let your inner coat become sacred ground.

So I think to summarise,

Don't beg life to change.

Instead,

Speak the truth of who you are.

Return again and again until the outer world yields to your inner knowing.

So as you go from this space into your day,

May the quiet fire of your desire burn with sacred clarity.

May you walk each day with the gentle strength of one who knows they are heard.

Not just by the world,

But by the infinite mind that shaped the stars and beats your heart.

May you return again and again to the inner coat of truth,

Where your voice is not just an echo,

But a creative force in harmony with divine law.

When the judge within seems silent,

May your faith be louder.

When the outer world delays,

May your inner knowing hold steady.

May your prayer become your posture,

Your persistence,

Your power,

Your desire a doorway to your divine inheritance.

And may peace go before you,

Grace rise to meet you,

And love surround you,

Now and always.

Thank you everyone for being here.

Love,

Light,

Blessings.

Namaste.