Prayer is essential to Christian spirituality. Jesus deeply emphasized the importance of persistent prayer. He said, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened” (Lk. 11:9-10). [1]
“Asking” reminds us to make specific requests to God. “Seeking” reminds us to diligently search for His guidance and wisdom. “Knocking” reminds us to persist in sharing our petitions to the Lord. If there are blessings and provisions to have, we never receive them through our own powers, but from the goodness of the Father in heaven. Through these actions, Jesus highlights the importance of continually engaging with God through prayer and maintaining an expectant heart.
We would be mistaken to suppose the asking, seeking, and knocking comprises some kind of prayer formula for a long life of wealth, health, and comfort. Jesus had something far different in mind. He wanted to direct us to remain in faithful communion with the Father who answers the prayers of His children.
Jesus presents two illustrations to show why the Father hears and answers the prayers of His children. First is the way a friend helps another friend in need regardless of inconvenient circumstances:
Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything’? I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs (Lk. 11:5-8).
Second a father expresses goodness and generosity towards his own son:
What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? (Lk. 11:11-12).
We intuitively know that helping a friend in need even at the most inconvenient moment is the right thing to do. The same goes for a father’s obligation to do good things for his son as opposed to anything harmful. Yet, many perform these virtues begrudgingly with deep inner struggle to forsake the doing of them. Moreover, we are very aware of the unsettling instances wherein people fall short of living according to these virtues. Are there not far too many painful instances of cries for help being ignored and of fathers abandoning their children? We know how to love, but we come short of loving the way we ought to love. We have a tainted love.
“If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,” says Jesus, “how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Lk. 11:13).
Here Jesus presents a lesser to greater comparisons to teach us something about the goodness and generosity of the Father in heaven who hears our prayers. Even with our tainted love we know the good and true thing is for a friend to help another friend in need after midnight, and for a father to take care of his children, so we can be even more certain that God whose love is holy and true will be generous and gracious to us. These comparisons assure us that when we approach God in prayer with sincere hearts, He will respond with what is best for us, in His perfect timing.
Notice too that Jesus lets us know that the Father gives to those who ask the Holy Spirit. What a spectacular unimaginable blessing! The Spirit is the agent whom enabled prophets to be spokespersons for God. God is thus “like a father who feeds his child, so the Father will supply his disciples with the Spirit they need to be guided in their spiritual life.”[2] The ever-present Spirit of God enlightens, educates, and empowers God’s children (Jn. 14:16-17, 26; 15:26; 16:7-15; 1 Cor. 2:6-14, 12:3; 2 Tim. 3:16; Titus 3:5; 2 Pet. 1:21).
Asking, seeking, and knocking is part of Christian fellowship with the Lord. Leon Morris explains,
All three verbs are continuous: Jesus is not speaking of single activities, but of those that persist. He is speaking of an attitude similar to that taught by the parable. The repetition in verse 10 underlines the certainty of the response. People ought not to think of God as unwilling to give: he is always ready to give good gifts to his people. But it is important that they do their part by asking. Jesus does not way and does not mean that if we pray, we will aways get exactly what we ask for. After all, “No” is just as definite an answer as “Yes.” He is saying that true prayer is neither unheard nor unheeded. It is always in the way God sees is best.[3]
Life in this fast-food, selfish, instant-gratification culture wants that immediate “Yes” to the prayer request. “No” is furthest from what we expect God to give. We keep asking, and it feels as if the prayers are being returned unanswered. Yet, the problem may be rooted in the fact that the answer expected is not the answer received. Elizabeth Reynolds Turnage puts it this way:
Unanswered prayer is, as many realize, not truly unanswered, but in fact answer unheard or undesired. God has spoken, “Wait,” or “Not yet,” or “No,” but we have often talked over God, refusing to listen. As we grow more spiritually mature, we will learn to listen in prayer, and as we do, we will, like the Psalmist in Psalm 22:24, learn to recognize the song line of redemption, God singing His love over us.[4]
It is when we ask “according to his will he hears us” (1 Jn. 5:14). Prayer sets our hearts to be in tune with God’s will. It is in the asking, seeking, and knowing that we navigate the path of God’s will from the present world into the world to come.
[1] All Scripture cited from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), unless noted.
[2] Darrell L. Bock, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series: Luke, vol. 3, ed. Grant R. Osborne (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1994), 207.
[3] Leon Morris, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries: Luke, revised edition, vol. 3 (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1988, 1997) 214.
[4] Elizabeth Reynolds Turnage, “How Unanswered Prayer Grows Faith, Hope, and Love,” Christian Research Journal, 44, 3 [2021]: https://www.equip.org/articles/how-unanswered-prayer-grows-faith-hope-and-love/
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