Can you explain Luke 11:5-8?
The Lord Jesus had a vibrant prayer life that was full of close communion with His Father. Luke 11 begins by mentioning one of the times that Jesus prayed to His Father. After He finished, one of His disciples said to Him in verse 1, “Lord, teach us to pray.” In verses 2-4, the Lord tells His disciples what they should pray. Although it is often called the Lord’s Prayer, these verses were intended by the Lord as words that the disciples would pray.
As a further encouragement to the disciples to pray, the Lord teaches them a valuable lesson in Luke 11:5-8. These verses state, “And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves; For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him? And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee. I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth.”
In this passage a man went to his friend’s house at midnight and requested three loaves of bread to give to a guest. His friend appeared to be irritated by a request at such a late hour and initially did not want to get out of bed to help him. However, because the man was so persistent in asking for the favor, the friend got out of bed and gave him the bread. We can be the same way. We may grudgingly help each other while not having the best attitude because we may have been inconvenienced in some way. However, in verses 9-10 the Lord explains how things are different when we pray to our heavenly Father. The Lord Jesus says in those verses, “And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.”
Unlike you and me, God does not hesitate or have a bad attitude about responding to our prayers. Of course these verses are not a blank check for us to satisfy our selfish desires. We must pray according to His will in order for Him to give us what we asked. As we read in 1 John 5:14-15, “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.” Asking according to His will has nothing to do with God being stingy or not wanting to give us good things. Instead it is all about Him infinitely loving us and wanting only what is best for us, even when we think that we know better than He does.
Prayer is when we talk to God. Our Lord loves to hear what we have to say anytime of the day or night. He cherishes fellowship with us much more than we do with Him. As we listen to Him through His Word, the Bible, we will get to know what pleases Him and will result in our greatest blessing. This will give us wisdom in our prayers so that we will pray according to His will. (180.3) (DJ)