ASK AND YOU WILL RECEIVE – OCTOBER 7TH – THURSDAY (Lk 11: 5-13)

1. Prayer demonstrates how deeply we trust God and how much we love and depend upon Him. A person who really trusts God – who really knows that what he asks is going to be received – will bring more and more to God. He will come to God in prayer more and more. But the person who is not quite sure about receiving, will only occasionally come, usually only in emergencies. God easily sees how much we really love and trust Him by our prayer life.

2. Travelers often journeyed late in the evening to avoid the heat of the midday sun. In Jesus’ story just such a traveler had arrived towards midnight at this friend’s house. In the Middle East hospitality is a sacred duty. But unfortunately in the villages only enough for the day’s needs was baked. This puts the householder in an embarrassing situation, and he has to meet the sacred obligation of hospitality at all cost.

3. The poorer Palestinian house consisted of one room with only one little window. Families were large and they slept close together for warmth. For one to rise was inevitable to disturb the whole family. Further it was the custom to bring the livestock, the hens and cocks and the goats, into the house at night.

4. Jesus is not telling us to batter at God’s door until we finally compel him to give us what we need but to tell us, ‘if a churlish and unwilling householder can in the end be coerced by friend’s shameless persistence into giving him what he needs, how much more will God who is a loving Father supply all his children’s needs?

5. If we do not receive what we pray for, it is not because God grudgingly refuses to give it but because he has some better thing for us. There are no such things as unanswered prayer. The answer given may not be the answer we desired or expected; but even when it is a refusal it is the answer of the love and the wisdom of God.

In our daily encounter with people, we regularly disturb others and get disturbed by others too. One of the usually moments we get irritated is when someone disturbs us in our sleep. We tend to curse people and we do not feel like doing charity in those moments. Here comes Jesus who asks us to ask Him unceasingly. He is ever ready to grant our petitions but unfortunately we are asleep and we are not willing to open the doors of our hearts to come in and do the needful.

Courtesy
William Barclay’s Commentary
Sacra Pagina Series
The Preachers Outline and Sermon Bible