Journey Through The Bible
     Old Testament Reading: Genesis 10-11
     New Testament Reading: Luke 11

“So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened” (Luke 11: 9-10).

Jesus’ disciples wanted to learn how to pray. Nowhere is it recorded that they ever ask Him to teach them to preach or minister better or more effectively, but they asked Him to teach them to pray. Our Lord was a Man of Prayer. He made prayer a priority, and the disciples saw Him praying often. They wanted to learn from Him this secret of spiritual power and wisdom.

Jesus begins by giving them an example of prayer that we know as the Lord’s Prayer. Here in Luke, the wording is a little different from the more familiar version that is recorded in Matthew, which was a year or two earlier in Jesus’ ministry. However, the outline of the prayer, the template, or pattern is the same.

When we pray, we are to include:
~  Praise to God – Hallowed be thy Name
~  Pray for His ministry work to be done – Thy Kingdom come
~  We’re to confess our sins – forgive us our debts
~  And then we are to make our request for ourselves and others – give us this day our daily bread.

Here in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus then gives a parable of the persistent neighbor. Jesus tells us that if an unrighteous man will give good, how much more will our loving Father in heaven give us good gifts when we persistently ask.

Jesus concludes the story with these familiar words: ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you. (v9-10). They are a great reminder of persistence in prayer. The tenses of the verbs in Greek are important. We are to ask and keep on asking, seek and keep on seeking, knock and keep on knocking. We are to keep in constant communication with our Father in Heaven. The Apostle Paul exhorted us to “pray constantly” (1 Thes. 5:17).

I’m reminded of the time when Daniel prayed for twenty-one days with prayer, petitions, and with fasting to receive an understanding of a vision given to him. And then we read an angel came to Daniel on the riverbank and explained the vision to him. The angel told Daniel when he began praying, God immediately sent him to Daniel to give him the answer, but the devil prevented him. For twenty-one days while Daniel was praying, the angel battled the devil and the Archangel Michael had to come and help him, to bring the message to Daniel (Daniel 10).

James, a half-brother of Jesus and early leader in the church at Jerusalem, was nicknamed ‘Camel Knees’ because his knees were extremely calloused from praying so often. He wrote: You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and don’t receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. (James 4:2b-3)