Be confident and persistent in prayer
By Dean Collins
But what if your children ask for a stone or for a snake?
In both Matthew chapter 7 and Luke chapter 11, Jesus teaches his disciples something about prayer. In Matthew, Jesus tells his disciples that even imperfect parents won’t give their child a stone when they ask for bread. And if they want fish sticks, they won’t hand them a snake. In Luke 11, Jesus makes a similar point. However, sometimes our children ask for some weird stuff; and as a parent, I have, at times, given them what they really wanted.
When my two oldest children were young, they were fascinated with the Disney movie Robin Hood. All of the characters in this animated film were played by animals. Robin Hood was a fox. The antagonist in this film is Prince John. The prince has a sidekick whose name is Sir Hiss. And you guessed it; Sir Hiss is a snake. While there are dozens of clever and cute animal characters in Disney’s Robin Hood, my children loved Sir Hiss, which led to their request that I give them a snake.
Being a good dad, I didn’t give them a bird or a fish. I went out into the back yard and caught a green snake. I then put it in a cage and gave it to them. That afternoon, I came home to find their snake in the cage on the table with them while they watched Robin Hood again. They wanted the snake to see “Sir Hiss” because they had named their snake Hiss!
Jesus told his followers to be confident and persistent in prayer. “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” He went on to say that even though parents are sinful, they still want to please their children and will give them what they ask for and not something they didn’t want. I gave my kids the pet snake they wanted. But I will confess to later releasing it back into the wild because, on second thought, I decided maybe having a pet snake wasn’t the best thing to introduce at their ages! (This might be another indication of God’s wisdom being greater than mine!)
Never give up when you pray
Every time I read these teachings of Jesus on prayer, I am conflicted. On one hand, I am inspired to be bold in prayer and to never give up when praying. In Luke’s teaching on prayer, we hear the parable of the man who has an unexpected visitor in the night and basically hounds his neighbor until he gives in, gets up, and gets some bread for the man to offer his guests. In Luke’s passage, Jesus tells us to ask, seek, and knock on the doors of heaven because our loving Father knows what we need and will respond.
My conflict is probably similar to yours. We all can give accounts of prayers we prayed and didn’t get what we prayed for even when there didn’t seem to be anything wrong or evil about our prayers. There are starving people who pray for food and go to bed hungry. There are loved ones we pray will get well yet continue to struggle with health issues and eventually die. Does this mean that God doesn’t answer our prayers when we seek, knock, and ask him over and over again?
I suspect each of us has answers that address the tension we sometimes feel about how God responds to our prayers. Here are some good answers:
1) God always answers, but sometimes the answer is no. In his wisdom, he knows when what we ask isn’t truly the best thing for all. Jesus indicated that parents know how to give good gifts and God more so.
2) For reasons we cannot understand or explain, God’s timing is different than ours. Sometimes he does answer according to our schedule, and sometimes he doesn’t.
3) We understand that God will restore, heal, and renew all things one day. As much as we might want that day to be today, we live in a soon but not yet moment.
These answers suffice on some days, and some days they seem woefully inadequate. Yet, Jesus urges us to never give up when we pray.
It is interesting to me to consider the context of Jesus’s teaching on prayer especially in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus had already explained that our righteousness should exceed the Pharisees. He told us that we are to love our enemies and do good to them. We should not be anxious, give to the needy, and lay up treasures in heaven instead of accumulating stuff here on earth. It is then that he tells us to ask, seek, and knock saying that he will answer.
What if the context of this lesson on prayer is that we can only succeed in doing the things Jesus called us to do when we ask, seek, and knock constantly. It is then, and only then, that our hearts are so fully aligned with God that we will pray for the things that are less about us and more about his kingdom.
As much as I love my children and grandchildren, I don’t give them every request. Even in my limited wisdom, I know that will not be the best for them. I can fully accept that God knows far better than I know what I need and when I need it.
Right after Jesus taught on prayer, he told us that we should take the narrow road and that it is hard. Part of the narrow road is accepting that God wants us to pray boldly and that he will answer in ways that are best. Even if I don’t understand why, I can still humbly and regularly bring my requests to God.
Father, thank you for teaching us that we can and should ask, seek, and knock both freely and boldly. We trust you and your love for us and that you know better than we do concerning what we need and what is best. We come in prayer believing that you not only can change a situation, but you can also change us and mold us in ways that better reflect your glory to the world around us. Thank you for giving us your Holy Spirit who comforts us, guides us, and advocates for us constantly. We love you and thank you for your kindness to us each day. In Jesus name, Amen.
Your Time with God’s Word
Matthew 7:7-14; Luke 11:1-13 ESV
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
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