Persistent...Bold

Good Morning,


Luke 11:9-10 (NIV)
"So I say to you, 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 he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened."

We are all very familiar with these verses of Scripture, I'm sure. They are used to teach us that we ought to pray and go to God with our petitions; our needs, wants, and desires...for ourselves and others. Something that we tend to overlook, though, are those verses which come directly before these two verses...

"I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence (NIV reads: boldness) he will rise and give him as many as he needs." (vv 8)

So, immediately before Jesus tells people that we are to ask, seek, and knock, He tells us that we need to be persistent and bold when we ask, seek, and knock.

Yes, God does answer prayers. Yes, God does often give what is asked for. Yes, God shows the way to those who seek. Yes, God opens the doors that are knocked on. However, sometimes the ways in which He answers prayers aren't exactly what we were thinking about when we went to Him.

Sometimes what we ask for isn't what we need in our lives, so God answers by providing that which is truly what we need...maybe different from what we ask. Sometimes what we seek, or the ways in which we go, aren't what God would have for us in our lives, so He answers by nudging and prodding us to find those things that He knows are best for us in our lives. Sometimes the doors we knock on aren't truly the ones that we ought to be standing in front of, so God answers by placing us in front of a different door, or even opening a door that we never thought was there.

In our human understanding this can be difficult, I know. We want what we want. And...we want it right now. We are human, after all, and have those frailties and foibles of being human. So, often, we just don't know what's best in our lives. God does.

And, back to our original point this morning. Jesus tells us that we are to be persistent and bold in our prayers. We are to continue to pray...to ask, seek, and knock...as long as it takes. In His example he says, "yet because of his persistence...," which tells us that our persistence and boldness will be to our gain, as well. The writer of Hebrews tells us, "Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need." (Heb. 4:16)

Yes, my friends, when we pray we are to be persistent and bold. And...we should also expect the unexpected sometimes in the answers to our prayers.

Love, peace, and blessings,

David