January 10, 2024
Author: Pastor Bernard Ibrahim
January 10, 2024
Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, when he finished, one of
his disciples said to him, “Lord teach us to pray as John taught his
disciples.” And he said to them, “When you pray, say, ‘Father, hallowed
be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread, and
forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted
to us. And lead us not into temptation.’” And he said to them, “Which of
you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him,
‘Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a
journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and he will answer from
within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are
with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything.’ I tell you,
though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his
friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever
he needs. And I tell 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 the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it
will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will
instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will
give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good
gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the
Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
Luke 11:1-13
Similar to Matthew 6 and 7, this passage in Luke provides us with
several insights regarding the Lord Jesus Christ teaching his disciples
and us on prayer. The two ideas that came out to me that I would like us
to meditate on regarding prayer is this idea of persistence, or as we
have here in verse 8, depending on your translation, it may be impudence
or without shame or without bashfulness. The other idea is
relationship. Relationship of us, the ones who are praying to the one
God we are praying to. And so really persistence and how it's related to
our relationship.
You'll notice in verse 8, this word
impudence, which I mentioned has an idea of without shame, literally
translated or without reserve or without bashfulness, and sometimes it
can be translated as persistence. The expectation, in this parable, that
the Lord Jesus relates about this friend who has another friend who
comes late at night and then he has to go to his friend to ask for some
bread so he can feed his visitor. And they are friends, but because
they're friends he can tell him, “Hey, go away, you know, we're friends,
come back later, it's late.” But because of his persistence, his
impudence, his disregard for any possible idea that he's going to get
shame on himself or he's going to be seen as too bold or too persistent,
his friend actually gets up and provides him what he needs. Jesus is
giving us this as an example to follow, not an example not to follow.
He's basically taking a little snapshot from real life of what you would
do with a true friend, and you had a real need; not for yourself but
for someone else and you have a real need and you were insistent; you
needed your friend’s help and you know your friend could help you, you
just know you have to keep asking until your friend gives you what you
need.
And this idea of persistence we see in Hebrews 4:16. We
often quote this verse to one another, “Let us then with confidence,
(this idea of without bashfulness or without restraint) draw near to the
throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in
time of need.” Notice the consistency. What the writer of the Hebrews is
telling us is, when you have a need come to God boldly, come to God
boldly with confidence. It's the same idea as we have the Lord Jesus
teaching. Because it is impudence, he's going to go to his friend and
he's going keep persisting until he gets his answer.
It's clear
the Lord Jesus was not teaching anything about us being disrespectful to
the Father because in the example prayer, verse 2, it opens, “Father,
hallowed, be your name.” There is no room for any lack of respect to the
Holy God that we worship who is our Father, but that is not to negate
our persistence and it gets back to our relationship. How can we do
this? Be persistent and respectful but be insistent on praying to God
over and over again what we desire of him to fulfill and it gets back
to this relationship.
In verse 2 in this passage, the Lord Jesus
teaches his disciples and us to call God, “Father” in prayer, to
address him as father. That's the relationship, he's our father, we're
coming to him as his child. Verse 5, the little parable nested in here
gives us the analogy of friend. Not a stranger and not one that is
negatively disposed to us, but we have a relationship. He is our friend
and in this relationship we're also a friend going to our friend. And
then in verse 11 again he reintroduces in another analogy, father with a
child, “You know how to give good gifts to your children,” So in our
relationship, we honor the Father, we pray to the Father, we glorify the
Father, but we should be insistent, bold, persistent, impudent in our
prayers. I've always thought of the word impudent with a negative
connotation, but here the Lord is not encouraging us to be disrespectful
to sin, he's encouraging us to be persistent in prayer and we take the
Lord Jesus at his word. It's not a puzzle or a trap, we take them at his
word. This is his teaching straightforward to encourage us to pray with
faith boldly, coming to the Lord to his throne of grace.
And
that's my encouragement to you tonight, it was an encouragement to me.
The more time I spend meditating on it, the more encouraged I am that
the Lord Jesus wants us to come to the Father knowing that he loves us
as his children and we should come to him boldly and persistently that
way in our prayers.
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