Responding to God in Prayer

Luke 11:1-13 – Responding to God in Prayer

Introduction

If you struggle with something, who do you normally ask to help? For instance, if you want to do plumbing in your house and you don’t know how, you have two choices, learn to do it yourself, or have someone else do it for you. If you want to do it yourself, how will you learn? From someone who knows absolutely nothing about it, or from someone who is doing it in real life and is an expert?

Background

The disciples have been with Jesus awhile now. They have seen him pray in the morning, pray at meals, pray in the afternoon, pray at night, and pray for long periods of time. As they consider their own prayer, they realize they need help. So, who should they ask? An expert…Jesus.

In our passage today in Luke 11, Jesus was praying, perhaps for awhile. It appears that the disciples have found him, maybe they were waiting patiently for him to finish, probably amazed at his persistence and passion, and so, if we use our imagination, maybe they came to him and said something like this, “Jesus, we have seen you pray day in and day out. We can’t pray like you do. Will you teach us your secret to good prayer?”

What we are going to see from our text today is that if we want to pray well, we must persistently and expectantly pray to our Father from a heart of sonship and submission.

Exposition

Now before we begin, let me make sure you understand that there isn’t going to be a test on this. It isn’t really about “praying well” for the sake of “praying well” or being good at it. It is about a living relationship with our Father in heaven, which is what Jesus shows them. So, let’s begin.

The heart of prayer (vv. 1-4)

At the heart of prayer is a heart of adoption as children. Not in a bare understanding of the doctrine of adoption, but in a very real, raw sort of way. In a way that is not religious per say, but relational. The heart of prayer is the heart of one who is so deeply loved by their Father that he would send his Son, Jesus, to take on flesh and bear the curse and judgment of our rebellion so that we could be called his children.

It is a heart that can say with Paul, “…I am a child and heir of God. God’s Spirit lives in me. I am dearly loved, and I proclaim and believe that I am not a slave, but a legitimate child of God. ‘Abba! Father!’”

A love for God: Worship and surrender to his wants (vv. 1-2)

The term Abba, which Jesus used regularly (though not in this particular verse) when talking with God clearly holds out two ideas: love and surrender. It embraces the idea of God as our dearest Father, and God as our gracious king. We love him dearly and so, because God is our Father, our Creator, and our God, we want God’s name to be made holy by our lives honoring him. We desire to see Him reverenced and set apart as holy. That is to say that our Father would be looked up to. We want our God to be known as the Father of all and in such a way that he is reverenced among all people both now and for all eternity! We want God to enter our lives and the lives of our family and friends.

We want God’s kingdom to become realized in a new and unique way in our lives, our family’s lives, our friend’s lives, and in the lives of all the people in the world right now…in our time and in our space. We desire to see all people know him, love him, obey him, and like in the Garden of Eden walking and talking with him. We long to see humanity’s desires match God’s: loving him, loving others, and taking care of his world.

This is a Lordship request. It asks God to extend his reign and power into every part of our lives: emotions, desires, thoughts, and commitments. We are asking for God to fully rule in us so that we want and love to obey him with all our hearts with true joy. It is a heart of love and surrender. It is a heart that lives out the first and greatest commandment to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength.

A love for others: Pray for them and us (vv. 3-4)

Jesus has just shown us the true heart of prayer, the fulfilling of the first and greatest commandment. But he also shows us that true prayer also fulfills the second commandment, to love our neighbors as ourselves…to love others.

We request that God give us each day our daily bread. We are dependent and God provides what we, need at just the right time. God wants us to live every day asking ourselves, what do we, need to get through to the end of the day? What does my neighbor need to get to the end of the day? We pray for that, and then when we get up in the morning, we do it again, day after day. We can be confident as we pray like this because God loves to give abundantly.

When we bring God our needs in prayer, we pray in faith, expecting a positive response, but no matter what happens, we don’t lose our satisfaction or trust in him. We don’t pray with the attitude of telling him what must happen, but what we think he would want for us. We come with a needy heart and a will that trusts in him. Jesus is telling us that our prayers should reflect our life…a life where we are abiding in Him. Thus, we pray with an understanding that we really can’t make it in this world without God. We are dependent.

One important thing contained in this petition is the use of the plural, us. It is a prayer that God would not only provide for our needs, but others as well. It is a prayer that God would provide for the needs of others. It is a heart of love and concern for our neighbor. We care about them and seek their good. We want them to be provided for, even if they are an enemy. We love others out of Christ’s love in us.

But this concern is so strong that it also cares about whether we have hurt or sinned against others. This love motivates us to seek forgiveness from God and forgive others that have done wrong against us. It looks at our lives and sees where others have wronged us, and instead of holding on and becoming bitter, it remembers what God has done for us in Christ and extends grace to them as God is gracious to us.

But, because of our hard hearts, we need help. This part of the prayer teaches us that we should not insist on our own goodness, but that we should look first at our own sin and come under the covering of the blood of Christ where we find joy and forgiveness through repentance. As we abide in Christ, we can extend that love and grace to others.

It also asks God to keep Satan from putting a lure out in front of us to entice us into evil or sin. We pray that God will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. We are asking God to keep us from doing things that would not be loving to him or not be loving to others. It is a heart that lives out the second greatest commandment to love others as ourselves. It is concerned for their physical and spiritual welfare.

The attitude of prayer (vv. 5-10)

After Jesus has taught them how to pray, focused on loving God and loving others, he helps them by correcting a few errors that he knows will creep into their relationship with God in prayer.

Shameless persistence (vv. 5-8)

The first error he corrects is an error that will cause us to only pray for something a time or two and then if we don’t see an answer, we will assume that God doesn’t want to give us this because he is stingy or doesn’t care that much about us. Jesus tells his disciples, and us, that we should pray for things that we desire with shameless persistence.

He tells a story of a man who is in need of some bread because he doesn’t want to be a bad host. We might consider this prayer to be a little selfish. He doesn’t want to fail as a host to a friend of his. His friend is hungry and he has no bread to give him. He is probably embarrassed. Shouldn’t he have planned ahead? So, he beats on his neighbor's door at midnight until he answers and gives him what he needs. Can you imagine? Wouldn’t we be ashamed to do this? If we did actually knock on our friend’s door and they told us to go away, would we keep knocking until we got what we wanted or needed?

Jesus tells the disciples that when we pray, we should be shamelessly persistent with the things that we ask of God. As long as they aren’t sinful and go against God’s will, we should keep praying and keep asking. But what do we do with Paul when he said that he prayed three times and God said no? Well, if God tells you no explicitly, like he did Paul then don’t rebel against him, just obey and stop praying. But how many times have you and I heard a flat out “No!” from God.

What I think Jesus is driving at here is this, until the proverbial nail is in the coffin of your prayer, keep asking. Keep asking shamelessly and persistently. God clearly wants you to ask like this, it is part of his plan. Why? Because Jesus says so.

Unrelenting desire (vv. 9-10)

Jesus goes on to say that we should also pray with a heart of unrelenting desire. We are to seek until we find what we want. We are to knock until the door is opened to us. He tells us that if we pray with unrelenting desire, based on love toward God and love toward neighbors, then we can expect God to answer our prayers.

Here is a nice guardrail to keep us from falling off the path. We are to love God, so we don’t ask for things that go against his will. We are to desire his will, so we try to discern the things we pray for, those things which would make God happy. We are to love others, so we don’t ask for things in a selfish or greedy manner. We desire to see others prosper, so we ask with love of others in our heart. James 4:1-10 is helpful here.

But ultimately, we will trust God’s will for us. However, until God explicitly tells us no, and not to ask, we will keep on asking with shameless persistence and unrelenting desire.

God in Christ has given us a new heart. He is conforming us to his image. What we pray for will reflect more of what God wants, and what we actually need. Our desires and affections are being continually formed and reformed, refined and fashioned to make us look more like Christ. Therefore, Jesus tells us that our attitude in prayer should not treat God as if he is a miser and doesn’t really care about us. Rather that we should pray out of our new heart and will he gave us.

The reality of prayer (vv. 11-13)

The reality of prayer is that we have a loving Father. He is not miserly or mean. He is the perfect father who gives us what we want when it won’t hurt us and is the best for us. God is the Father of lights in whom there is no variation or even a shadow of change. God cares about his creatures. Thus, he pours out rain upon the just and the unjust. He gives food and clothing. He gives us what we need to live because he's so gracious and loving. How much more his children?

To our perfect Father (vv. 11-12)

Our father truly is perfect. We should never think that God is going to give us something bad when we ask for something that we need or desire. God will give us exactly what we need at the exact right time.

As Christians we are often afraid to ask for things that are good for us. For instance, not many of us pray for the fruit of the Spirit. The reason for this is that we are afraid that if we pray for love, we will get someone in our life who is horribly mean to us. We don't pray for patience because we're afraid that our lives will become miserable as we develop patience.

Our problem is that we don't understand that God only gives good gifts. Often we don't want what God wants. If we understood the life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ, our perspective might change so we actually desire those things, and we aren’t afraid of asking for things that will draw us deeper into Christ.

Jesus wants us to understand that God really is good and that he won't give us bad gifts. Therefore, we can ask for things that we need because God is good, great, gracious, and glorious. Our prayer life should reflect a love to God and love to others that prays with shameless persistence and unrelenting desire for those things that align with God's will.

So how do we know what God's will is? Well, we must abide in Christ and allow his words to abide in us. Isn't this why Jesus in John chapter 15 says, “If we abide in him and his words abide in us then we can ask whatever we desire, and it will be given to us?”

Jesus doesn't add any conditions except the condition to live in an active and vibrant relationship with him. Does this make us nervous? Are we terrified to ask? Have we become so cynical, afraid that if we keep asking our cynicism will develop more and more and we will wander from God? This isn't the attitude of a child. Jesus tells us that we are to be helpless and dependent, like little children.

With expectation (vv. 13)

And so, Jesus tells us that we should pray with expectation. If evil people give good gifts to their children, how much more will our good God give the best things to us? We should not be cynical, but we should be like little children.

And what do children do? They expect. People that have no cynicism expect. Have we lost the view of God as an amazing, loving, and gracious God? Have we lost the view of God as the giver of every good and perfect gift? Have we lost the view of God as the Father of lights? Of God as our Father?

Jesus wants us to open our hearts back up to him. Jesus wants us to know that the best gift that he could give us is his very presence. Jesus wants us to know that the way that we can come to know and love and experience his joy is by abiding in him. Jesus wants us to know that the way that we abide in him is to ask for the Holy Spirit. Jesus wants us to ask for the fruit of the Spirit to be shown in us so that we live and look like Jesus. The best gift is to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit who lives and works in us. The real question for us today is this: Is this what we want?

Now, you may be in a place where this sermon was pretty painful for you. Maybe you have been praying for years or decades for something and the time has past and God never gave you that good thing that you asked for. Perhaps you have read the Scriptures and like me have found a big list of the way you should pray and so you blame yourself in order to not be angry at God.

If we look at the list of how we should pray, we could easily conclude that this is why our prayers weren’t answered. Ironically, since we can’t fulfill this list, why should we bother to pray at all? Why should we expect God to answer our prayer?

This is why I don’t like to use answer when referring to prayers, but rather like to use the term “story.” God’s mind and plan is far above ours. We need to remember this and ask ourselves the question, “What is God doing in this story?” This thinking helps to resolve lots of tension.

True prayer rests in Jesus Christ, trusts in the will of the Father, and lives out of dependence and helplessness as it waits and watches for God to work a better story than we could ever dream.

So keep praying, but also keep trusting that God is doing the best thing for you even if your deepest longings in this world have not been met. Rest in Jesus and know the reality that God “…who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” Can you say with Job, “Though he slay me, I will hope in him; yet I will argue my ways to his face.”