I wonder if there is anybody who has never said a prayer. I am convinced that at one point or another, we all have made that call. it is the open hotline to everybody and anybody. Most of us, if we are sincere with each other, only make that call when we are in trouble, when we want something, when we are about to lose someone we love or simply when we think we deserve something and take the shot of praying about it. We also use it after the fact. When we are angry and need someone to blame for something that went wrong in our lives.
I also wonder if nobody had taught us to pray, we would do it anyway. could it be an automatic response already established and imprinted on our making?. C.S. Lewis says in the book Mere Christianity that we were born with the knowledge of right and wrong as it was implanted in us by the creator and I believe so. For to begin with, who established right and wrong and morals if it wasn’t God? I think prayer is like it. Going back to Luke 11:2, Jesus did not say if you pray but when you pray as He knew that all of us would pray at one time or another.
After Jesus taught the disciples The Lord’s prayer, He followed through with what prayer does and why we should use it. Our reading comes from Luke 11:5-13
Jesus starts not with a parable but with an example. He tells them to get into the scene. He says “suppose one of you has a friend and goes to him at midnight and says to him, friend, lend me three loaves for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey and I have nothing to set before him.
When we look at this passage, we are seeing a person whose sole motive for asking midnight help is to provide for his friend. It is not because he wants for himself. It is because he is showing hospitality to someone else and needs provisions for such. does this reminds you of the promise that when working for the kingdom God provides? when your goal is to be Jesus to the world?. When you have selfless motives?
Could this journey had been a hard journey and his friend needs nourishment? could it be a different kind of nourishment and not necessarily physical nourishment? Three loaves of bread? why not one? I don’t claim to know for sure but when we skip to chapter thirteen and Jesus says “how much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?” It seems to me that the claim here is God is all we need.
He continues the example by saying that even if the friend is comfortable and already in bed and even if he doesn’t honor their friendship, He would respond to the frequent knock on the door so that He can be left alone. I don’t believe He is saying God doesn’t care but He is saying even for that reason alone He will do it. He will answer it.
He says in Luke 11:9-10 so I say to you. ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you. for everyone who asks , receives, and he who seeks, finds, and to him who knocks, it will be opened.
Do you suppose is anything you ask? a car?, a house?, a million dollars?. Would the above person need these things to help his friend after his long journey?, To help him find rest and nourishment? I guess this is something only God would know. Wouldn’t He? It sounds to me that if that is the case, you and I would get these things. What about sickness and struggles? I am not sure I am seeing them included in this passage.It seems to me this passage is about provisions. What do you think?
In Luke 11:11-13 He goes on to compare God the Father to earthly fathers and says: Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish; he will not give him a snake instead of a fish will he? or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he?
When looking at that comparison, I think about myself as a mother. I would really not feel much pleasure to give to a child of mine who only called me when He or she needed something. I would give, but not with joy and perhaps not always?. On the other hand, a son or daughter who called me because they loved me and wanted a relationship with me, I would be delighted to provide for them and to answer their call. But this is my human nature.
Jesus says to everyone who knocks, to everyone who asks, to everyone who seeks. Then again, He gave the example of the selfless friend at the beginning. To finish this passage in Luke 11: 13 Jesus said: If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!
Baam! there you have it! When I was reading it, I was expecting it to say, how much more will your Heavenly father give you all you ask for! but Jesus does not place emphasis or power in anything else but the power of the Holy Spirit. Then, when and who would ask for the Holy Spirit? when you have been convicted that the only thing you need is God and once convicted of this, You find in John 3:16 that your way to the Father is through Jesus and as you receive Jesus, you receive the Holy Spirit and therefore you have need of nothing else for the Holy Spirit will provide all your needs.
Have you received Jesus as your Savior? If you haven’t, I encourage you to do so. Yes you will continue to pray for things and people, you will also learn to make those calls more frequently and learn to discern how God answers them as you will develop a relationship with Him. You will also be transformed and Jesus will give that peace that trespasses all understanding. Don’t wait until you are drowning and have to make that desperate call. Call on him now.He will answer!. It is a promise.