luke.bible/luke-11-13Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, “Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.” And suppose the one inside answers, “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.” I tell you even, though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need. 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 ask receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!-Luke 11:5-13
In the verse preceding today’s Jesus’ disciples had asked him to teach them to pray. And he gives them this great model prayer that we all know. He then follows up his this giving of the model prayer with his teaching on the importance of prayer and why we should pray. The first thing Jesus taught his disciples about prayer was its importance. And why is prayer important? Prayer is important because it is your means to communicate with God. If you will notice in the story that Jesus shared about the two friends, the one who had the need did not expect the one had the means to help to know that he needed help. The friend who the need had to communicate directly with the friend who had the means to help. And the same is true for us. Which lead us to the other thing that Jesus was teaching about prayer in this passage. And that is why we should pray. Since prayer is our way of communicating with God, does it not make since that we should be bringing to God not just our needs, but also our hopes, our dreams and another questions that we might have. That is what Jesus meant when he said, “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 ask receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Luke 11:9-10 NIV) We don’t want to ask, seek or knock. Instead we want to treat God like our Genie in a lamp, where we only rub the lamp when want something or need something. We don’t ask God the right questions and we are not seeking to know God’s answers to those questions. The true reason you should be praying is so that you will know what God desires for life and what God’s purpose is for your life.