Are you a persistent person? Do you keep at something until it is completed, no matter how long it takes, or how difficult it is? Or are you someone who gets frustrated easily, and tends to give up, especially if the going gets tough? In our Scripture reading today from the Gospel of Luke, Jesus teaches us to be persistent in prayer. Let’s open up this passage and see what the Lord is teaching us.
Jesus starts His lesson with telling a story of a man who has a late night guest arrive at his house (vs. 5-8). This guest hasn’t eaten anything, and unfortunately the man finds he doesn’t have anything to feed him with. There are no late-night fast food places to go to, and rather than be an inhospitable host, he goes next door and starts knocking. The neighbor has already gone to bed, along with his whole family. It is late at night, the lights are all out, and everyone in the house is sleeping. That doesn’t stop our man. He keeps knocking, even after the neighbor has told him to go away and let him and his family sleep. His persistence pays off, and the neighbor gets up and loans him the food he needs for his guest.
The second example that Jesus gives is that of a good parent (vs. 11-13). If a child asks his parents for bread or other food, is he handed a rock, or something poisonous? No, of course not! A loving parent will give their child good food, not anything that would harm them. Our God is certainly a most loving parent to us!
What lessons is Jesus trying to teach us with these examples? For one, Jesus wants us to know that we are to come to our Heavenly Father in prayer for whatever we need. There are some people who believe that we shouldn’t “bother” God with all sorts of small, seemingly unimportant matters, as “God has all the big problems in the world to deal with”. The guest of the man in Jesus’ story would not have died had he gone to bed a bit hungry, so perhaps that man could have waited until the morning to go and get food. Instead, though, he went right then and kept asking, kept knocking, until his neighbor gave him some food (vs. 9-10). God wants us to come to him with every need and concern we have. Nothing is too unimportant to bring to Him in prayer.
Another thing that Jesus wants us to learn is that God is not some mean ogre who very grudgingly doles out His gifts and blessings. If we sinful and imperfect humans give our children what they need, and often even more than they need, don’t we think God would do the same? (vs. 13).
We need to remember some things about prayer, though. God wouldn’t tell us to pray if He wasn’t going to respond. However, we must meet some requirements in prayer if we expect to get an answer from Him. First, we must have a right relationship with Jesus Christ by trusting Him as our Savior. Also, after we have become a Christian, we must choose to live in godliness (Psalm 66:18). Another thing is we must make right requests, according to God’s will (I John 5:14). I’m sure it is not God’s will for me to live in a huge mansion with my own personal jet, so if I pray for those things (which I don’t!) I’m not going to get that prayer answered! Sometimes when we pray for something that is unselfish and seemingly right to pray for, like good health, a job, etc., God might not answer right away because He has something better for us. He wants to mold us into the image of Jesus, and wants us to develop a more compassionate or patient character, or one that is less attached to worldly goods.
God wants us to be persistent in prayer. He said that everyone who asks would receive. He rewards them that diligently Him (Hebrews 11:6). Jesus tells us in this chapter of Luke that we need to spend time in prayer, and what His response will be. If we come to God in prayer with the right motives, putting first the Kingdom of God (Matthew 6:33), and if we live for Him, He will give us the desires of our hearts (Psalm 37:4). Only prayerful fellowship with God will always see us through, and give us direction when the storms and fires of life come. We serve a God who answers prayer.
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