No good thing will the Lord withhold from those who walk uprightly. Even when His answers don’t seem good to us at the moment, we need to trust that God is only giving us what is truly good for us.
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How Should We Pray?
Luke 11:5-13
We continue this morning with Christ in the School of Prayer. Thus far our Lord has taught us the “Who” and the “What” of prayer.
The first question is, “Who are we praying to?” Our Father who is in heaven. Our Father speaks of God as the infinitely familiar One. He is the loving, tender, available and approachable One. But He is also the One who is in heaven. As such He is the infinitely exalted One. He is the transcendent, sovereign, holy and majestic One. He is both at the same time. He is Father to be loved, and He is the One in heaven to be feared.
The next question is, “What should we pray about?” Jesus has answered that question in the Lord’s Model Prayer by giving us six petitions. The first three are directed towards God’s interests, and the final three are directed towards our own interests. We are to pray first and foremost that God’s name would be glorified, His kingdom would spread and increase, and His will would be performed all over the world just like it is done in heaven. Then, we may also ask for food for our body, fellowship with our God and faithfulness in our temptations. These six petitions give us a sample for our own prayer lives, so that we have direction as to what kinds of things the Lord would have us bring to Him to answer.
The third and final question Jesus answers in this section is, “How should we pray?” Jesus answers that question in verses 5-8 by giving us an illustration of a man who goes to his friend at midnight and asks for three loaves of bread to give to a friend who has come to him on a journey. Then Jesus applies the illustration in verses 9-10, by telling us that we must keep on asking and seeking and knocking in order to receive the answer to our prayers. How are we to pray? With shameless persistence.
Then Jesus gives another illustration. This is an illustration of a Father whose son asks for a fish or an egg for lunch. The Father would never give the child a scorpion that would sting the child or a snake that would bite the child. Then Jesus applies the illustration in verse 13 by saying, “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?” How should we pray? With confident trust in God as our loving Father.
We know that Jesus’ application begins in verse 9 because He begins that sentence with, “So I say to you…” We know Jesus’ application begins in verse 13 because He says, “If you then…”
So, here is the Structure of Jesus’ teaching on how we should pray:
1. We should pray with shameless Persistence: 11:5-10
A. Illustration: 5-8
B. Application: 9-10
2. We should pray with confident trust: 11:11-13
A. Illustration: 11-12
B. Application: 13
Now that we know who we are praying to, and what we should pray about, let’s focus this morning on how we should pray.
1. We Should Pray With Shameless Persistence (Lk.11:5-10)
A) The Illustration: To try to understand the illustration that Jesus gave, try to imagine that you are a Jewish man in the first century. You are married with several small children. You live in a one room house. Part of the house is dedicated to preparing and eating meals, and the other part of the house is dedicated to the area in which the family sleeps. It was customary in Jewish households to put a mat down in the corner of the house, and the whole family would bed down together. If it got cold, they would huddle closer together to stay warm. Oftentimes, they would also bring in some of the domesticated animals into the home overnight. So, here’s the situation – you and your family had your evening meal, you spent time with your family by candlelight for a few hours and then you and your wife have gotten the kids ready for bed. When they are all ready for bed, then you and your wife get ready for bed, bring in the domesticated animals, shut and lock the door, blow out the candles and go to sleep. Because you have to start work at the crack of dawn, you are in the habit of going to sleep rather early. Around midnight, you hear this rapping on your door. So, in a daze you try to figure out what in the world is going on. No one ever knocks on your door at midnight, but you finally get yourself awake enough to understand that it is your friend calling to you from outside. He says, “Friend, lend me three loaves.” It’s a good tactic to call him “friend”, isn’t it?! Maybe that will cool him off for waking you up at midnight! You finally get the story out. Your friend has just had an out of town visitor show up at his home. In hot areas, people would often travel at night. He has shown up unannounced late in the evening, and your friend doesn’t have anything to give him to eat. Now, you might think, so what? Just have him go to sleep, and worry about getting some food for him in the morning. However, that’s not how a first century Jew would have thought. To the Jewish people, hospitality was a religious duty to God. They took it very seriously. It would have been unthinkable for this man not to give his guests something to eat. The only problem was that his cupboards were bare. So, he told his guests, “make yourself at home. I need to go visit my neighbor, and I’ll be right back.”
Now, if you were the guy that got woke up in the middle of the night, how would you have responded? I think we would probably respond just like the guy in Jesus’ illustration. “You’ve got to be kidding! Look, I’ve already got the whole family in bed with me, the animals are in, I have shut and locked the door. I can’t get up and give you anything! Just go away!” So, what does the visitor do? He probably thought, “I can’t go home empty-handed. I just can’t. It just isn’t done. I must get some food for my guests.” You see, his only choices were to be a good host or a good friend. If he were a good friend, he would just leave and quit bothering him. If he were a good host, he would keep on pestering his friend until he got the bread. So, what does he do? He walks away from the door, tries to think of what to do, and then finally walks back to the door, and raps again, louder than before. Even though he doesn’t want to do it, he has to get some food for his guests. Finally, in exasperation, you decide that if he keeps on with this, he’s going to wake up the whole family, so just to get him to stop bothering you and leave you alone, you get up and give him the bread.
Now, let’s notice a few things about this illustration. First, we see that necessity leads to bold and persistent prayer. The man had a need for food, and he didn’t have the resource in himself to meet that need. Perhaps the thing that keeps us from bold persistent prayer is we don’t feel our need. Perhaps we feel like we are sufficient, and can do this thing on our own.
Second, notice that the man already had an established friendship before he went to his neighbor’s house at midnight. He wasn’t knocking on a stranger’s house. There was a prior relationship. So, it is with us and God. We can pray with shameless persistence because God is our Father.
Third, we need to notice the contrast between the man in bed and God. This is an illustration intended to teach us something by contrast. In this illustration the man in bed was asleep, but God never slumbers or sleeps. The man in bed didn’t want to be bothered, but God is always pleased when we come to Him in prayer, no matter what time it is. Jesus point is that if an irritated, cranky neighbor will get up and give his friend some bread, how much more will God grant your requests when you pray with persistence?
Now, the most important word in this section is the word “persistence.” This word is translated “impudence” in the ESV, and “importunity” in the KJV. The word “importunity” means urgent or persistent in solicitation, sometimes annoyingly so. The word is translated as “shameless audacity” in the NIV. The NLT hits the nail on the head by translating it “shameless persistence.” This fellow should be ashamed of waking up his friend and family in the middle of the night. But he is breaking all the rules of propriety, because he feels he must get bread for his guests. He wouldn’t take “No” for an answer. He was determined to keep banging away on that door, until he got bread.
So, how should we pray? Jesus teaches that we should pray with shameless persistence.
B) The Application: Now, let’s look at Jesus’ application in verses 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.” Jesus tells us to ask, seek, and knock. It is significant that every one of those verbs is in the present tense, which speaks of continuous action. In other words Jesus was saying, “keep on asking, keep on seeking, and keep on knocking and you will receive, find, and it will be opened.” Prayer is likened to asking, seeking, and knocking. The truth of this passage is that shameless persistence in prayer will be answered by God.
What kinds of things should we pray about with shameless persistence? I would suggest we should pray persistently about the first three petitions in the Lord’s Model Prayer. We should pray that God’s name would be hallowed, God’s kingdom would come, and God’s will would be done. We should keep banging on heaven’s door, until we see the answers come.
Some of you who have unsaved friends and family that you have prayed for, but they are still not converted. What should you do? Pray on! Keep banging on heaven’s door until they are saved, or until they die. You might feel like you are bugging God by coming back again and again and again. But He has told you to bug Him! He is pleased when you bug Him!
Maybe you learned about Revivals, and so you prayed God would send one, but nothing happened. What should you do? Pray on! Pray, “Your kingdom come!” Be shamelessly persistent in prayer. Keep banging away, until God opens the door and bestows the blessing.
Maybe you have prayed that God would use you to bring others to Christ, but in spite of all your efforts, you have seen precious little fruit. Don’t give up, but pray, pray, pray! Shamelessly pray. Give God no rest, day or night, until He sends the answer. Pray boldly, pray audaciously, pray shamelessly. Storm the doors of heaven until God brings the answer.
2. We Should Pray With Confident Trust (Lk.11:11-13)
A) The Illustration: The second illustration is of a father and his son. The son comes to his Dad and says, “Dad, I’m hungry. Can I have some fish for lunch? Can I have an egg?” Jesus says that if the son asks for a fish or an egg, the father would never turn around and give him a scorpion which would sting him or a snake which would bite him. I mean, imagine that! That’s sadistic!
B) The Application: Again, Jesus is teaching a truth by the way of contrast. He says in verse 13, “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?” So, what is Jesus contrasting? He’s contrasting earthly fathers who are evil, with the heavenly Father who is holy. Isn’t it interesting that Jesus’ view of human beings is that they are evil. Jesus’ view of humanity is totally different from most people in the world today. By and large, people believe that humanity is basically good. However, even evil fathers know how to give good gifts to their children. So, how much more can we count on our heavenly Father to give what is good to those who keep on asking Him?! The truth that Jesus is teaching us here is that we should pray with confident trust, knowing that God is our loving Father who will not give us something bad, but will always give us what is good when we pray persistently.
Life Application
1. Trust God To Give You What Is Good: You never need to fear that if you ask God for something that is good and beneficial for you that He will turn around and give you something that will be hurtful and injurious to you. God is not a cruel trickster. He doesn’t get His jollies by giving you a snake when you have asked for some fish to eat, or giving you a scorpion when you have asked for an egg. He is a loving Father, who only wants the best for His children. If even an evil human father knows how to give good gifts to His children, surely you can have confidence that your heavenly Father will only give you good gifts as you go on asking Him! If you or I asked our earthly father if we could play with a loaded gun, or play in the ocean with sharks, they would deny our request. Not because they didn’t love us, but because they did! God loves us too much to give us anything that will ultimately harm us.
Jesus told us that when we pray for something good, God won’t give us something bad. So, if you pray that God will give you that unemployment insurance money you feel you need, but it is denied, how will you handle it? If you pray that God will give you custody of your daughter, but the judge decides against it, how will you handle it? If you pray that God will give you your physical strength back, but you remain extremely tired and fatigued, how will you deal with it? If you pray that the Lord would convert sinners and bring Revival, but it doesn’t happen, how will you handle it? If you are praying for wisdom to make an important decision, and you don’t like the answer that He seems to be giving, how will you handle it? If you pray that God would give you more uninterrupted sleep at night, but instead the kids continually keep waking you up, what will you do? You’ve got several options. You might conclude that God must not exist. Or, if He does exist, He doesn’t answer prayer. Or, if He does answer prayer, He doesn’t love you, and that’s why He doesn’t answer your prayers. There is a more Biblical solution to the problem.
First, we need to see if we are fulfilling the Biblical conditions for answered prayer. There are five questions we need to ask ourselves.
- Do you pray for things that are not God’s will? 1 John 5:14-15 says, “This is the confidence which we have before Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.” So, the first question we need to ask ourselves is whether we are praying for something that is God’s will. If it’s not, our prayers are an exercise in futility. We need to be open to the fact that we may be praying for something that is not God’s will.
- Do you pray in unbelief? Mk.11:24 says, “Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you.” If we want God to answer our prayers, we must pray in faith. James tells us the same thing about the man who is praying for wisdom. He says in James 1:6-8, “But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” We need to pray with expectancy.
- Do you pray with wrong motives? James 4:3 says, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.” We need to examine our motives. Why am I asking for this or that? Is it really just a selfish, self-centered prayer? Am I only concerned about myself, or do I want God to answer this prayer for His glory?
- Do you pray while dishonoring your wife? 1Pet.3:7 says, “You husbands in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with someone weaker, since she is a woman; and show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered.” Men, if we are not honoring our wives, and there is disharmony and tension in our homes, this can hinder our prayers.
- Do you pray while living in disobedience? 1 John 3:22 says “and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.” Ps. 66:18 says, “If I regard wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear.” Obedience to the will of God is important to answered prayer. My friends, if we are living in habitual sin, we should not be surprised if our prayers go unanswered.
The first thing to do if you are praying and not seeing an answer, is to look at the Biblical conditions. Are you meeting those conditions, or is there some area that is out of sync with God’s will? Repent and reform that area of your life first. However, let’s say you are truly seeking to pray according to the conditions outlined in Scripture, and still the prayer you pray is not answered. What then? Ps. 84:11 says “No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.” If you are praying according to God’s will, in faith, with right motives, while honoring your wife, and walking in obedience, and God isn’t doing what you have asked Him to do, what then? You have asked Him for what you think is a good thing, but you haven’t received it. What do you do then? You trust! You trust that God is wise and God is good. You trust that if this truly was a good thing for you right now, God would give it. The fact that He has not given it to you means He knows it is not a good thing for you, at least right now. He knows that withholding that thing from you, is better for you, than to give it to you.
Tim Keller has said, “God only gives us what we would have asked for if we knew everything He knows.” If we could see the end from the beginning like He does, we would realize that the things He gives us are good, and He isn’t withholding anything that is truly good from us.
So, the final thing Jesus teaches here about prayer is that it must flow from a confident trust in Him as a loving Father who will only give good things to His children.
2. Ask For The Holy Spirit: In Matthew 7, a parallel passage, Jesus says “your Heavenly Father will give good gifts to those who ask Him.” Here He says, “your Heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him.” What does that tell you? Here in Luke we see that the best gift we can pray for is the Holy Spirit. You say, “But Brian, I’m saved – I already have the Holy Spirit. Why should I pray for the Holy Spirit?” That’s a little like saying, “I’m saved – I have already been forgiven. Why should I ask for forgiveness?” When I pray for the Holy Spirit, it’s not because I don’t already have Him. It’s because I want more of what I already have. My friend, do you already experience all the influence, and power, and life, and illumination, and love, and affections, and spiritual desire of the Holy Spirit that you could possibly want? Of course not! We may have been filled with the Spirit, but the problem is, we leak! We constantly need to come back to the Father and ask Him to give us more of the Spirit’s influences. That’s what I do every Sunday morning before I preach. That’s what I do when I open the Bible to study for a sermon. That’s what you should do when you start your day and know you will have to deal with an ornery boss, or neighbor, or family member. That’s what you should do before you seek to speak the gospel to someone else. When we pray for Revival, this is what we are asking. We are asking the Father to bestow a much greater power of His Spirit. The old writers called it an “effusion” of the Spirit. That simply means “pouring out”. The regular ongoing work of the Spirit in conversion is like a mist or a sprinkle. A revival is like a downpour. The regular work of the Spirit is like a trickle. A revival is like a rushing river. When we pray for Revival, we are asking God for a great downpour of the Spirit upon our churches and our land.
Conclusion
How should we pray? Jesus teaches us to pray with persistence and trust. So, this week, when you get out of bed in the morning and go to pray, be persistent in prayer for those things you believe are consistent with His will, but He hasn’t answered yet. However, in all your praying, pray with a confident trust that He will answer you, and He will give you what He knows is best for you. And above all other things that you pray for, pray for more and greater influences of the blessed Holy Spirit. Let’s pray.
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