The Pattern For Prayer part 5

There is no clearer, more definitive benchmark of a person’s spiritual maturity than his or her view of God.

The apostle John described the most spiritually mature individuals, the “fathers,” as those who “know Him who has been from the beginning” (1 John 2:13, 14

1 John 2:14 ESV

I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.

Paul wrote that his supreme goal was to know the Lord Jesus Christ (Phil. 3:10

Philippians 3:10 ESV

that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,

To be spiritually mature is to understand that God is eternal, omnipotent, holy, unchangeable, omniscient, omnipresent, majestic, and transcendent, above and beyond and outside of all contingencies in the universe He created.

It is to know that He is sovereign, bringing to pass the perfect plan He ordained from the beginning.

In light of God’s sovereign control of events and the inevitable outworking of His purpose and plan, the question arises as to whether believers’ prayers change anything.

And since He is omniscient, God does not need more information, nor is He surprised by circumstances.

Going to Him in prayer therefore seems to be little more than an unnecessary expression.

But having a correct view of God’s nature and purposes does not squelch prayer; the Lord Jesus Christ, God incarnate, prayed to the Father (e.g., Matt. 26:39–44; Luke 10:21; John 11:41–42; 17:1–26), gave model prayers to teach believers to pray (Matt. 6:9–13; Luke 11:1–4), and commanded them to pray (Luke 18:1).

God’s words addressed to Israel in Jeremiah 29 also make it clear that His sovereign purposes do not negate prayer.

In verse 11 He said, “For I know the plans that I have for you … plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.” Still, in verse 12 He added, “You will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.”

But if prayer does not change God’s mind or plans, or give Him information He lacks, what purpose does it serve?

The answer to that question lies in understanding that God not only ordains the ends He purposes to accomplish, but also the means to those ends.

For example the Old Testament predicted that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem (Mic. 5:2), but God used the decree of the pagan Roman emperor Augustus Caesar as a means of fulfilling His plan (Luke 2:1–4).

Similarly, God used both the hostile Jews and the Romans as the means of carrying out His plan that Christ would be the sacrifice for the sins of His people (Acts 2:22–23).

Because it is a God-ordained means to accomplish His purposes, “The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much” (James 5:16).

In this passage Jesus encourages believers to pray boldly.

The Parable (vv 5-8)

Here we see Jesus use a parable to teach them the reason to pray.

In this parable a neighbor had a friend visit him in the night.

This was not uncommon as night travel was easier due to the temps being lower.

When the traveler got to his friends house he needed food.

He could not just run down to the quick mart or go to the grocery store to pick anything up.

He goes to a neighbors house and gets supplies there.

Here what Jesus was trying to teach His disciples was persistence.

The Promise (vv 9-10)

The parable illustrates an incredible promise.

The use of the personal pronoun in addition to the first person form of the verb in the Lord’s statement I say to you adds emphasis.

As God incarnate, the Lord Jesus Christ speaks with the voice of absolute divine authority.

Using three present tense imperative verbs, the Lord commands believers to boldly, aggressively storm the gates of heaven.

The three verbs, ask, seek, and knock are progressively more intense, and each one repeats the promise: to those who ask … it will be given; those who seek … will find; those who knock … will find heaven’s doors opened to them.

Jesus then repeated this amazing promise so there would be no mistaking His meaning: For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened.

This promise is not a blank check granting people whatever they wish, since it has already been qualified by the Lord’s teaching in verses 2–4 that God is the focus of all true prayer.

James struck this same balance between boldness in prayer and selfish greed.

In James 4:2 he rebuked his readers for failing to pray boldly: “You do not have because you do not ask.”

But then he went on to warn, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures” (v. 3).

Those who pray with a proper, God-centered focus will receive what they desire, but the selfish requests of the greedy will not be granted.

The Principle (vv 11-12)

Jesus introduced the principle by posing two hypothetical questions to His audience.

Suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish, He said.

Children, of course, can be expected to ask their fathers for what they need.

They understand that the relationship between them and their father is one of love, care, responsibility, and affection.

That gives them the confidence that they will receive what they ask for.

Therefore if a father is asked by his son for a fish; he will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he?

No normal father would mock his child’s hunger by giving him a deadly snake instead of the fish he requested.

Nor if he is asked for an egg would he give him a scorpion—another unsavory and dangerous creature—or an inedible stone instead of bread (Matt. 7:9).

The obvious answer to Christ’s questions is no, because of the principle that fathers take care of their children and meet their needs.

Knowing their heavenly Father’s care for them and commitment to meet their needs, believers can confidently ask Him for all that they need.

Unlike the false gods of pagan religions, God is loving, approachable, and generous.

The Premise (v 13)

This premise, expressed in the form of a comparison, is the foundation upon which the whole discussion rests.

Christ’s opening words, If you then, being evil, express the biblical doctrine of total or radical depravity.

Even His true followers, those who had embraced Him as Lord, Savior, and Messiah, were still evil.

In the sense that we still strugle with sin.

If we know how to help and provide for our children in our unregenerated state how much more does God know how to take care of His children.

Bold, confident prayer results in communion with God and all the rich blessings of His goodness as believers experience the reality that He “is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us” (Eph. 3:20).