18 Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not become discouraged. (Luke 18:1 NASV)

After being diagnosed with stage four melanoma in his sinus cavity in November 2020, David Baker could only helplessly watch as the tumor grew on the side of his face, CBN reports.

This was because it was inoperable and because of the type of cancer it could not be treated with chemo.

David had gone to the doctor initially because of repeated nosebleeds and this resulted in the removal of a polyp from his sinus.

However, shortly after that, his face began to swell. When they returned to the doctor a CT Scan revealed that he had stage four melanoma and the prognosis was bad, because there was nothing that could be done.

As the tumor grew it began horribly disfiguring his face and reached the point where he was unable to see out of his right eye.

Though medicine could offer no cure, people were praying for David. This not only included people in the church he attended but because of his previous pastoral experience, prayer was being offered in churches across America.

Yet despite all this prayer, the swelling continued to grow and because it was also growing inside his mouth eating was becoming more difficult.

“Several times a day we would pray together,” his wife, Jerilyn said. “And there was times that you felt like you were just lost for words. You felt like that you were only repeating yourself because you were worn out. You were worn down from this sickness.”

Yet, through it all, they kept praying.

But that would all change on Easter Sunday, when the church invited a guest speaker Dr. Tom Renfro and his wife, Sid.

When Sid saw David, she immediately felt the urge to pray for David, because God had healed her husband of cancer.

As she prayed for David, Sid said there was such a presence of the Holy Spirit that she actually felt the swelling would just fall off David’s head.

But though nothing immediately happened, the next day Jerilyn mentioned to David that she thought the swelling on her husband’s face had gone down.

David had noticed the same thing but admitted he was fearful of saying anything because he was scared that he was imagining it.

They decided to join the family for dinner that day to see if others noticed. They also saw a marked difference and within a few days, the tumor was gone.

After Jesus told his disciples to continually pray and not become discouraged in their prayer, the Lord shared the story of the woman who had gone before an evil judge seeking justice for a situation.

But the corrupt judge wasn’t interested and kept putting her off.

But there is a key verse in this parable that we need to grab onto when it comes to prayer:

⁴ For a while he was unwilling; but later he said to himself, ‘Even though I do not fear God nor respect any person, ⁵ yet because this widow is bothering me, I will give her justice; otherwise by continually coming she will wear me out.’” (Luke 18:4-5 NASV)

While the judge was outwardly refusing to hear the woman’s case, notice that he was thinking of changing his mind. Verse 4 stated that he was saying to himself.

All the woman was seeing outwardly was rejection after rejection, but inwardly this judge was starting to cave.

If she had judged the situation solely by outward circumstances, she would have quit and lost her victory.

Though we are facing outward, even aggressive resistance, we have no idea what is going on spiritually or inside a person’s mind.

If you are praying for your child as an example, don’t judge the effectiveness of your prayer by what you are seeing externally. You have no idea what is going on in their heart.

READ: Chemo Wasn’t an Option – That’s When God Supernaturally Healed This Man of Inoperable Cancer