Luke 11:5…

How often then, should we pray? Should we keep asking for our un-met needs?

That’s a good question. After informing His disciples how to pray, Jesus teaches them about what it means to have a prayer life.

A life filled with prayer is a life filled with needfulness realized, needfulness fulfilled, and needfulness empowered. (Our weakness, our lack, becomes our strength.)

There is a question that goes along with the information Jesus provides His disciples, and it is almost an absurd one: If you knew that all your needs - every single one - would be or could be met by God, why would you ever fail to ask Him to meet the need?

It then comes down to a question of faith doesn’t it?

This is how Jesus explains it, and why He explains it in an almost absurd fashion. When you are out of bread, and you need bread, what would you do? What do you do? What have you done?

Well, you go to your neighbor, because you know he has bread when you don’t. It’s too late to make bread yourself, you need ready-made bread.

But wait, how can you be certain your neighbor has bread? The truth is the only thing you know for sure is that you don’t have bread. You go to your neighbor on the possibility he does. And also, faith in even the possibility your neighbor will give you of what he has.

You are completely dependent upon the benevolence of your neighbor, but you do not hesitate to ask – even after bedtime – because the need you have is great, and you are willing to risk begging because your reputation for hospitality is on the line.

In this case, will you take “No” for an answer? Why not? What propels you to keep asking? Is it because you now know for certain the neighbor has the bread you need? (He did not deny that he does.) Is it because it is necessary to keep asking in order to rouse him from his bed to meet the need? How does God fit into this example?

-Pastor Bill