If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?
With this string of dramatic metaphors, Jesus sums up one of the most beautiful reminders for us in the Bible… the reminder that we are allowed to ask things of God. Not only are we allowed to ask, it is expected and even desired by Him.
As part of teaching his disciples how to pray, Jesus used a specific metaphor to show us how he expects us to pray for things. He described how, if you had a friend show up unexpectedly in the middle of the night, you would want to see to his physical needs. However, if you didn’t have anything to eat, you would ask your neighbor if you could borrow some food.
Jesus pointed out that the neighbor would not deny your request, no matter how absurd the hour or how indisposed he might be in filling your request. He would lay aside much and even go through personal discomfort to make sure you had what you needed, just because you asked it of him.
What really struck me this time as I read this passage was the explanation Jesus gave of WHY your neighbor would respond to and fulfill your request… because of your importunity.
The dictionary defines “importune” as the following:
To press or beset with solicitations; demand with urgency or persistence.
To make improper advances toward (a person).
To beg for (something) urgently or persistently.
To annoy.
To press; impel.
To make urgent or persistent solicitations.
To make improper advances toward another person.
“Importunity” is defined as “the state or quality of being importunate; persistence in solicitation.”
This is interesting because it gives a very clear picture of how Jesus wants us to ask for things. He wants us to be insistent, persistent, and urgent… even to the point of begging or being annoying. Even your neighbor, because of your insistence and urgency in getting what you need, will take himself out of his comfort zone to help you – just because of your importunity.
The next verse confirms and strengthens the very case Jesus had already set forth to his disciples,
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
Ask. Seek. Knock. That couldn’t be more clear and yet there’s a promise attached to this importunity…
For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
What should we take away from this? The simple fact that we are expected to ask for things from our Heavenly Father. We are His children in the most childish sense of the word and He expects us to be His children in deed and in fact. Fathers supply their children’s needs and don’t withhold.
It is with this mindset we are to approach our Father in Heaven. If He is our provider (and He is), we need only but ask. Sometimes we need to look harder for the answer and sometimes we need to stand knocking on His door. But never to fear or to doubt because He WILL provide and will not trick us or give us something that will not satisfy the need we have placed before us.
Go before Him with importunity and ask with confidence.
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Title: Conditional Whatsoever
Today my attention was drawn to Luke 11, in particular the verses between 11:1 and 11:13. In these passages, we have the familiar Lord's Prayer, and the passage that speaks on God giving gifts appropriate to need and greater than our earthly fathers can offer.
Let us take a look at something that falls between them.
In Luke 11:5, we have a friend visiting at midnight asking to borrow some loaves of bread to give to a visiting friend. We don't know much about our initial visitor save that scripture refers to them as our friend (so no silliness about him not really being a friend because he's visiting at midnight) and we know that our friend wasn't prepared for the need to offer bread to his friend (so no observations about how our friend should have been prepared, or referring to the parable of the ten virgins, how our friend SHOULD have already been prepared). We also know that our friend is visiting us, which implies we have the bread to give. You will, no doubt, recognize this in yourselves - when you are in your hour of need, it is amazing how clearly we can associate or needs with those who can supply them - we can rest assured we have the bread to offer in this circumstance.
The observation I am making is that Jesus is comparing the fact that when need strikes, and we would offer exactly what our friend is in need of, that Jesus states that God wishes for us to visit Him in the same spirit, when we are in need, and God has promised (through Jesus, at the very least) to provide that which we need, better even than our earthly father could. This should be a great blessing to us, for we are ever in perpetual need of something, and so we can truly rely upon Jesus to supply those needs.
The point I wish to address is the word importunity. Prior to today’s reading I always saw this as kind of a mangled "opportunity" mixed with "import" - as in, the friend had an opportunity of need that was intensely important, such that everyone the friend new needed to be involved ... at least until the need was resolved. In the same kind of vein, we see people who have a vision, a need to help others or realize a potential, calling upon others with importunity, and the result is much the same - the need supplies the motive, and apparently creates a kind of opportunity to claim the applicable resources.
We thus have a visitation of another point that I've noticed repeatedly: intense emotional veracity.
I truly think we can ask for ANYTHING of Jesus (it clearly states so in John 14:13-14, [And whatsoever ye shall ask IN MY NAME, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing IN MY NAME, I will do it.]), but I think that there should be a difference between mumbling a prayer to Jesus while asking for $1000 to pay for a lottery purchase and spending hours on your knees, begging the Lord for $500 to pay for surgery for our wife. It isn't that we can't pray for it, but I don't think both will bear fruit. To put it another way - how will the Father be glorified in the lottery purchase?
So the question is, as so many other questions can be reduced to: how is your walk with God?
If, in your relationship with Christ, you have discovered that you have a need ... it is right, appropriate, and proper for you to pray for it. Pray that it be resolved. Pray that it be healed. Pray that God will take it away. Whatever matches that need, that particular discovery is clearly in line with the essence of God's will in John, and clearly, that kind of thing (whatsoever) will be resolved and you are likely, as per your walk with Jesus, to glorify the Father!
My call to action today is this:
Find out what it means to "ask in the name of Jesus". It is the clause in John 14 that has the most potency ... it is the condition upon which realization of the "whatsoever" is hinged upon. But few of us (certainly I am included in this) have never evaluated what that phrase means. Consequently, it is quite often that believers live lives of poverty, of anguish, of suffering, of sorrow, of lack, in addition to being under spiritual oppression (as exhorters and claimers of God's promises) and so often can only survive for a little while before they are thrown from the wagon again. And yes, that can glorify Jesus.
But think how much glory we could bring to Jesus' table if we never needed to fall off the wagon?
Right now, most of us need to fall off the wagon as a sign to those who have fallen timeless times, to draw them closer to Jesus. Imagine if our walk guided us to those steps which reduced, or eliminated, the need to fall off the wagon.
Imagine if we were so clearly led, and so focused on God, that we never noticed we fell off the wagon, because our eyes were on Him, not on ourselves?
Find out how to earnestly "ask in the name of Jesus" in your own life, and I guarantee your life will be changed.
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