This first parable is a lesson in persistence in prayer (Next Sunday's parable will address attitude in prayer).  God is not  like the judge in the parable, worn down by requests and coerced to respond. The key is found in the description of the judge as corrupt and unjust. Since God can be neither, we must understand Jesus to be saying that if even an unjust judge responds to the persistence of the widow, how much more so will God listen to our prayers. God truly wants to hear about every single detail in our lives. However, it must be said that not all needs and petitions reach the point at which God, in hearing, grants them. They must wait until in his eyes they arrive at the suitable time, season, and number, and then it is said that he sees and hears them. While God answers prayers at the opportune time, the delay is not a failure but a test of the soul's perseverance and a means of purifying selfish desires, urging against discouragement and attachment to comfort. Let us then, like the widow, persevere in our prayers with shameless audacity confident that He would indeed hear and answer us in due time.