Luke and the Lost

Sometimes prayer is merely a smoke signal in time of trouble. We desperately shoot something up hoping to get an instant response from God, like “fix this, get me out, or I’ve fallen and I can’t get up”. When we think God is silent, maybe He is merely blinded by our selfishness. Our prayers are all about this moment…and ourselves. The last line in this passage hit me right between the eyes of my thinking this morning. “And don’t you think the Father who conceived you in love will give the Holy Spirit when you ask him?”

When Jesus says “ask and you’ll get”, He is referring to God’s best for us, not our puny requests of immediacy. He is asking us to ask for His Holy Spirit to guide us, show us what is better than what we think is good. We must go deeper than ever before in speaking to the God of all, Who created all, Who knows all and is in all. We are talking to the Creator of the Universe! We need to know Who we are talking to with great respect for what Jesus went through so we COULD talk to our Father, God. Above all, ask in Jesus Name. For without Jesus’ work on the Cross, we are talking to the air. There is power in the Name of Jesus!

Yes, Jesus, himself teaches us to pray. Let’s go over this again…

Luke 11, The Message

Ask for What You Need
11 One day he was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said, “Master, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.”

2-4 So he said, “When you pray, say,

Father,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.”
5-6 Then he said, “Imagine what would happen if you went to a friend in the middle of the night and said, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread. An old friend traveling through just showed up, and I don’t have a thing on hand.’

7 “The friend answers from his bed, ‘Don’t bother me. The door’s locked; my children are all down for the night; I can’t get up to give you anything.’

8 “But let me tell you, even if he won’t get up because he’s a friend, if you stand your ground, knocking and waking all the neighbors, he’ll finally get up and get you whatever you need.

9 “Here’s what I’m saying:

Ask and you’ll get;
Seek and you’ll find;
Knock and the door will open.

10-13 “Don’t bargain with God. Be direct. Ask for what you need. This is not a cat-and-mouse, hide-and-seek game we’re in. If your little boy asks for a serving of fish, do you scare him with a live snake on his plate? If your little girl asks for an egg, do you trick her with a spider? As bad as you are, you wouldn’t think of such a thing—you’re at least decent to your own children. And don’t you think the Father who conceived you in love will give the Holy Spirit when you ask him?”

Dear Heavenly Father,
It truly is all about YOU. Reveal Who you are to us today so that we might know you more and more. We pray for Your Holy Spirit to guide our every thought so that our behavior will be more pleasing to You. You know our needs better than we do so we pray that You will go before us, as You always do, ready to meet those needs in ways better than we can. We want what You want for us, for our experience tells us this is Your best and gives us peace beyond circumstance. Help us to keep in step with the rhythm of your grace. Thank you, Lord!
In Jesus Name, Amen…I believe.