Christmas Countdown 2019….Day 11

Have mercy…I am looking at all that needs to be done and wondering how in the world it is going to happen…how about you??

But we are pressing on with Luke 11 today and since all of us are short on time (or maybe it’s just me? ha!), I am thankful that my reading eyes rested on the line that gets me every time I read about the way Jesus describes our prayers.

He starts with a parable about a man who has late night guests and discovers there is nothing in the house to feed them and they are hungry.

So he goes to his neighbor’s house and in an act of boldness bordering on rude, he begins knocking and calling out that he needs to borrow some bread.

The desperation of the need to feed his guests drives him to the point of caring little what he is doing to his reputation in the neighborhood as he continues to knock and cry out.

Jesus tells those who are listening that the neighbor will finally relent and open his door, just to make him go away.

I am quite certain given the full context of Scripture that Jesus was not encouraging us to pester God so much that He gives us our answer so we can go away, but it gives a picture we can understand here in our every day life about the truth that persistence does pay off.

It shows us how the desperate need of another that may burden us and cause us to go again and again and again in prayer…even when our knuckles begin to bleed a bit as we pound on the door one more time…is heard and understood.

And Jesus follows this with an assurance that if a neighbor will get up out of bed to lend someone a loaf of bread…if a father gives a child a snack instead of a snake when he says he’s hungry…

and He points out that the neighbor is just a tired human being who wants his friend to go away and the dad is not a perfect father but even he knows how to take care of his child…

so how much more will our good, good Father answer us when we cry out.

Andrew Murray has written a wonderful book called The Ministry of Intercession based on this particular parable if you are looking for some good post-Christmas reading material, but the part about all of this is the promise of ask, and it shall be given…seek and you shall find.

We can jump on that promise and really start asking for some stuff but here is the kicker.

Because Jesus ends all of this with the “how much more”…how much more will the Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask.

How often do I beat on the door for a need and forget that what I need…what my family needs…what my friends need…what this world needs…is the Holy Spirit?

Ask and He will be given…

Seek Him and He will be found…

What a great promise <3