1 One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”
2 Jesus said to them, “When you pray, say this:
‘Father:
May your holy name be honored;
may your Kingdom come.
3 Give us day by day the food we need.
4 Forgive us our sins,
for we forgive everyone who does us wrong.
And do not bring us to hard testing.’”
5 And Jesus said to his disciples, “Suppose one of you should go to a friend’s house at midnight and say, ‘Friend, let me borrow three loaves of bread. 6 A friend of mine who is on a trip has just come to my house, and I don’t have any food for him!’ 7 And suppose your friend should answer from inside, ‘Don’t bother me! The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ 8 Well, what then? I tell you that even if he will not get up and give you the bread because you are his friend, yet he will get up and give you everything you need because you are not ashamed to keep on asking. 9 And so I say to you: Ask, and you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. 10 For those who ask will receive, and those who seek will find, and the door will be opened to anyone who knocks. 11 Would any of you who are fathers give your son a snake when he asks for fish? 12 Or would you give him a scorpion when he asks for an egg? 13 As bad as you are, you know how to give good things to your children. How much more, then, will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
Read Luke 11:1-13 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!
Have you ever been confused by something someone has said? Has someone ever seemed to contradict themselves within a few short statements? Have you felt that God, or maybe even Jesus, has done this?
In my reading and my study of this passage on prayer, I see an interesting potential contradiction within this verse on prayer and persistence.
Our passage opens up with Luke’s version of Jesus’ model prayer, and immediately it moves into Jesus teaching about how to be persistent with our requests. This teaching seems to indicate that sometimes our persistence can change God’s mind and turn a “no” into a “yes” – however mixed in with this teaching is the idea that God is the perfect Father and He will never give us something that will hurt us.
If you put these ideas together, one might conclude that God is a loving God, but perhaps He is stubborn, set in His way, or maybe even deaf since we must repeatedly persist in our requests for them to be “heard” or paid attention to. However a stubborn or deaf father is not a model or “perfect” father and if God is our perfect Father, making us repeat a request doesn’t seem all that loving.
Is this a “test” that God gives us to see how devoted we are? I would hope not, because while I’d fail miserably, it paints God as a demanding deity who requires us to perform – and if that were the case, there would be little reason for Jesus to have paid the price of our sins.
Perhaps, what is going on in this passage has more to do with the request than it does the requester. If we look closely at what we have been promised, Jesus is talking about God giving the Holy Spirit, and that is His perfect Fatherly gift.
It’s possible that our persistently asking for “a snake” or “a scorpion” will be granted – even though God knows it will cause us harm, but instead, what God really wants to give us is the best gift He can: The Holy Spirit living in us.
It is also possible that God knows the best timing for granting our request, and that right now might not be the best time for us to receive this. At least for me, it might mean that a part of my character needs to develop more, or part of my life needs to become stronger for God’s gift to truly be a blessing in my life.
What is true in these times is that when God says “not yet”, and when we persist in our request, our character and trust in God is being formed – even though we might not see or feel it in the moment.
God really does want to give us the best gift He can, though the best gift in His mind might be different than the gift we are requesting. Persistence may be able to change God’s mind, but it doesn’t change God’s love for you and me, and it doesn’t stop God from waiting until we are ready to receive the gifts we want and need.
This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!
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