In Luke 11, Jesus teaches the disciples how to pray by telling them a story, a parable. Consider the story. In the middle of the night, a man bangs on his neighbor’s door asking for a huge amount of bread. Three loaves – that’s a lot of bread even today. The neighbor responds – My family and I are all in bed, the door is locked, I can’t help you, don’t bother me. But the man keeps banging at door. And Jesus says – This is prayer.
Notice this. It doesn’t matter that it’s late at night, at an inconvenient hour. It doesn’t matter that the man should have asked earlier, or at least have been better prepared. It doesn’t matter that the request is large. Or get this. It doesn’t matter that the initial answer is no.
Out of desperation, the man kept banging at the door. Jesus tells us to pray like that. I don’t pretend to understand God. I don’t pretend to understand prayer. But one thing I have learned - God responds to persistent, “banging on the door” prayer. And He will bring us to a point in life, where like this breadless man, we realize, “I have nothing.” Luke 11:6 NLT God, there is nothing I can do about this situation. It feels hopeless. There are no obvious solutions.
Jesus finishes the story by saying, “But I tell you this – though he won’t do it for friendship’s sake, if you keep knocking, long enough, he will get up and give you whatever you need because of your shameless persistence.” Luke 11:8 NLT
Do you pray with a “shameless persistence”? If you’re like most people, you pray about a matter for a while. Then, having not heard from God, or seen any answers, you give up, assuming it wasn’t His will. But this parable challenges that thinking. Because nowhere in the Bible are we told that God’s silence means “no.” And in fact, His silence may mean – pray some more. Then Jesus adds, “And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you.” Luke 11:9 NLT
The NLT translates this verse well because the Greek verb tense shows a continuous, persistent action. Jesus says don’t just pray once or twice. But rather, ask and keep on asking. Quite honestly, we don’t know why persistence is required in prayer; Jesus doesn’t tell us that. He just tells us that it is. William Booth was an English preacher who founded the Salvation Army. And if you think about it, the name Salvation Army is really quite a powerful name. He wrote, “Pray as if everything depended on your prayer.” Is that the way you pray?
This morning, I am challenging you to analyze your prayer life.
Take stock of your prayer life. Is prayer a duty? An obligation? Something you do out of guilt, feeling like it’s a requirement? Dread? Or is it something you just don’t do. But all of that thinking is wrong. If you feel that way, you have believed a lie of the enemy.
The truth is this - Prayer is a privilege. God, would you renew our minds so that we see prayer as a privilege. See, it’s an indescribable gift that we can seek help and counsel from the One who sees all things, knows all things, and is able to do all things. As Cory Ten Boom said, through prayer we can leave a world of not being able to do something and enter God’s Realm where everything is possible.
My message this morning is this – this year, if you don’t already, would you view prayer as a privilege. And as such, pray with passion and with shameless persistence. Pray knowing it makes a difference. Ask and keep on asking. Keep banging away at the door. Instead, the Scripture tells us to have a never-cease attitude toward prayer – “Pray without ceasing.” 1 Thess. 5:17 KJV