¹⁸ Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.^[a]

¹⁷ Never stop praying.

An Encouragement for Prayer

² Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart.

Instructions about Worship

2 I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them.

⁶ Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.

²⁰ But you, dear friends, must build each other up in your most holy faith, pray in the power of the Holy Spirit,^[a]

²⁶ And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. ²⁷ And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers^[a] in harmony with God’s own will.

³⁸ Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”

Parable of the Persistent Widow

18 One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up. ² “There was a judge in a certain city,” he said, “who neither feared God nor cared about people. ³ A widow of that city came to him repeatedly, saying, ‘Give me justice in this dispute with my enemy.’ ⁴ The judge ignored her for a while, but finally he said to himself, ‘I don’t fear God or care about people, ⁵ but this woman is driving me crazy. I’m going to see that she gets justice, because she is wearing me out with her constant requests!’”

⁶ Then the Lord said, “Learn a lesson from this unjust judge. ⁷ Even he rendered a just decision in the end. So don’t you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? ⁸ I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly! But when the Son of Man^[a] returns, how many will he find on the earth who have faith?”

³⁶ Keep alert at all times. And pray that you might be strong enough to escape these coming horrors and stand before the Son of Man.”