{"id":1340,"date":"2025-09-16T03:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/gospeladventure\/?p=1340&2025"},"modified":"2025-09-11T18:00:02","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T00:00:02","slug":"the-power-of-persistence-luke-11-1-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/gospeladventure\/the-power-of-persistence-luke-11-1-13\/","title":{"rendered":"The Power of Persistence: Luke 11:1-13"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"spoiler spoiler-style-2\"><div class=\"spoiler-title\">Focus Passage: Luke 11:1-13 (GNT)<\/div><div class=\"spoiler-content\"><p><sup>1<\/sup>\u00a0One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, \u201cLord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p><sup>2<\/sup>\u00a0Jesus said to them, \u201cWhen you pray, say this:<br \/> \u00a0\u2018Father:<br \/> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0May your holy name be honored;<br \/> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0may your Kingdom come.<\/p> <p><sup>3<\/sup>\u00a0Give us day by day the food we need.<\/p> <p><sup>4<\/sup>\u00a0Forgive us our sins,<br \/> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0for we forgive everyone who does us wrong.<br \/> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And do not bring us to hard testing.\u2019\u201d<\/p> <p><sup>5<\/sup>\u00a0And Jesus said to his disciples, \u201cSuppose one of you should go to a friend&#8217;s house at midnight and say, \u2018Friend, let me borrow three loaves of bread.\u00a0<sup>6<\/sup>\u00a0A friend of mine who is on a trip has just come to my house, and I don&#8217;t have any food for him!\u2019\u00a0<sup>7<\/sup>\u00a0And suppose your friend should answer from inside, \u2018Don&#8217;t bother me! The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can&#8217;t get up and give you anything.\u2019\u00a0<sup>8<\/sup>\u00a0Well, 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.\u00a0<sup>9<\/sup>\u00a0And so I say to you: Ask, and you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.\u00a0<sup>10<\/sup>\u00a0For those who ask will receive, and those who seek will find, and the door will be opened to anyone who knocks.\u00a0<sup>11<\/sup>\u00a0Would any of you who are fathers give your son a snake when he asks for fish?\u00a0<sup>12<\/sup>\u00a0Or would you give him a scorpion when he asks for an egg?\u00a0<sup>13<\/sup>\u00a0As 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!\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"passage-read-more\">Read <a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Luke 11:1-13&amp;version=gnt\" title=\"Read the passage on BibleGateway.com\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"hyperlink-underlined\">Luke 11:1-13<\/a> in context and\/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!<\/p><\/div><\/div>\r\n<p>While teaching the disciples how to pray in Luke\u2019s gospel, Jesus first gives them a model prayer before quickly transitioning into an intriguing parable-illustration that on the surface implies that God can be pestered into answering our requests.<\/p>\r\n<p>In this illustration, Jesus tells His disciples, \u201c<strong>Suppose one of you should go to a friend\u2019s house at midnight and say, \u2018Friend, let me borrow three loaves of bread. A friend of mine who is on a trip has just come to my house, and I don\u2019t have any food for him!\u2019 And suppose your friend should answer from inside, \u2018Don\u2019t bother me! The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can\u2019t get up and give you anything.\u2019 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.<\/strong>\u201d (v. 5-8)<\/p>\r\n<p>This parable amazes me because it appears to encourage us to be extra persistent \u2013 even annoying at times \u2013 when asking God for something. In some ways, God is way more loving than I am because if a \u201cfriend\u201d kept pestering me at midnight for some loaves of bread, I am uncertain if he\/she would remain a friend. While they might eventually pester their way into getting bread, it would probably cost a friendship.<\/p>\r\n<p><em>However, thankfully God is more loving and merciful than me, and when Jesus shares this passage, He frames it along the lines of us doing the asking and persisting, rather than us being the friend who is woken up at midnight.<\/em><\/p>\r\n<p>While on the surface, this parable is pretty powerful, hidden in the details is an even more amazing truth that anyone, anywhere in the world can claim and act upon \u2013 regardless of if they are a Christian or not. As Christians and followers of Jesus, we can consider ourselves friends of God. In Jesus\u2019 concluding line, He sweeps our friendship aside when He says, \u201c<strong>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.<\/strong>\u201d (v. 8)<\/p>\r\n<p>Jesus tells these disciples that regardless of a person\u2019s view of God or of the strength of their relationship, persistence in their prayers will lead to answers \u2013 and this is even for those who are not considered friends of God. As I write this, I wonder if more people would see more blessings added to their lives if they would simply persist with heartfelt prayers, regardless of their view of God, their level of faith in Him, or their belief about whether or not He exists.<\/p>\r\n<p><strong>Persistent, sincere prayers appear to be one thing God wants His followers to model for others. Tucked inside this parable is the promise that anyone, anywhere can start being persistent with their prayers and can expect God to answer with a gift of what they need \u2013 which may look different from what they were asking for to begin with.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<div id=\"aj-wrap-up--1340\" class=\"aj-wrap-up\"><p><em>This thought was inspired by studying the <strong>Walking With Jesus<\/strong> \u201cReflective Bible Study\u201d package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, <a class=\"underline\" href=\"https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/\" title=\"Check out Reflective Bible Study!\">click here<\/a> and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!<\/em><\/p><p><em><a class=\"underline\" href=\"javascript:void(0);\" onClick=\"rbs_aj_inline_subscribe(this, '1340');\">Subscribe<\/a> to this blog and never miss an insight.<\/em><\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While teaching the disciples how to pray in Luke\u2019s gospel, Jesus first gives them a model prayer before quickly transitioning into an intriguing parable-illustration that on the surface implies that God can be pestered into answering our requests. In this illustration, Jesus tells His disciples, \u201cSuppose one of you should go to a friend\u2019s house [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-text"],"nelio_content":{"autoShareEndMode":"never","automationSources":{"useCustomSentences":false,"customSentences":[]},"efiAlt":"","efiUrl":"","followers":[2],"highlights":[],"isAutoShareEnabled":false,"networkImageIds":[],"permalinkQueryArgs":[],"series":[],"suggestedReferences":[]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Power of Persistence: Luke 11:1-13 - Reflective Bible Study Gospel Adventure<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/gospeladventure\/the-power-of-persistence-luke-11-1-13\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Power of Persistence: Luke 11:1-13 - Reflective Bible Study Gospel Adventure\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"While teaching the disciples how to pray in Luke\u2019s gospel, Jesus first gives them a model prayer before quickly transitioning into an intriguing parable-illustration that on the surface implies that God can be pestered into answering our requests. 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