‘And he spoke a parable to them to the end that they ought always to pray, and not to faint,'
This parable is so important that an explanation of its meaning and significance is given at its commencement. It is given as an encouragement and incentive to pray, and to go on praying without wilting. And as with the Lord's prayer, the prayer is to be concerning the going forward of God's purposes. It is to be always with an eye on the coming of the Son of Man. The prayer is to be that God will act on behalf of His people, will watch over them, will vindicate them (‘hallowed be Your name'), and will bring them through safely believing until the end (‘lead us not into testing'). Jesus' final question in 8b is not really an expression of doubt, but an encouragement to faith.
‘Always to pray.' Compare Paul's ‘pray without ceasing' (1 Thessalonians 5:17). This is a reminder that our lives should be firmly based on having fellowship with Him in prayer, and on an attitude of constant prayerful trust as we live our lives day by day, emphasising especially the need for God's people to come together regularly to pray. From it we recognise the importance that Jesus placed on constant communion with God, and on praying regularly concerning the things of God.
Sadly a lot of Christians see prayer as coming with a shopping list to God and then saying, ‘Gimme, gimme, gimme (give to me)', or as a noble attempt to keep all their relatives well. But neither of these are seen to be what should be the Christian's prime concern. For as we saw in Luke 11:1-4 Jesus said that our main emphasis in prayer should be on the carrying forward of His will, and the establishment of His Kingly Rule. It should only be children who spend all their time talking about themselves.
In context the emphasis is on praying continuingly until the second coming of Jesus Christ in view of the constraints that will be on His people. His people should be concerned in one long chain of prayer that never ceases, in which all of us should continuingly partake, and should be centred on the fulfilment of His purposes, for this will play an important part in His purposes coming about.
The conflict between this attitude and that of the Jews is striking. They prayed formally three times a day, and limited it to that lest God get sick of them, but this goes far beyond that. This was looking for prayer to become the very breath of life. It was an indication that God looks for our companionship continually.