Asking

It is good to be here with you at FBC this morning. I have been looking forward to this time for quite a while now. It seems as though the harsh, cold weather is behind us now and spring is on the way!

With that, Easter is just around the corner. I love Easter time. It is the celebration of the single greatest event in the history of mankind — the resurrection of Jesus Christ! As we begin to turn our focus to the empty tomb, I would like to look at something over the next 3 weeks that was an important part of Jesus’ ministry here on earth.

In , we see Jesus’ disciples asking for Jesus to teach them about what they saw as the power behind His ministry.

Luke 11:1 CSB

He was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John also taught his disciples.”

Jesus’ disciples had watched Jesus do the work of ministry for some time by this point. They had watched Him feed the multitudes, cast out demons from people, and teach the truths of God in might ways. In all these things, they had noticed that there was one thing that seemed to be the “secret ingredient” behind the effectiveness of all that Jesus did — prayer.

These guys were accustomed with prayer, but they had never seen it put to use as they had seen in the life of Jesus. They noticed that this act of Jesus communicating with the Father was something special. It was for this reason that they asked Jesus to teach them how to do it properly.

They could have asked Jesus to teach them how to feed the multitudes. They could have asked for Jesus to teach them how to give sight to the blind or make the lame to walk again. They could have even asked Jesus to help them to be able to teach the truths of God in the clearest manner possible. But they didn’t. All of these things — great as they are — were secondary to knowing how to pray properly.

In , Jesus shares with them a model of how to pray. This is what we commonly know as “the Lord’s Prayer.” It is not that we should pray these phrases exactly, but it serves as a model as to what should be contained in our prayers — praise (recognition of who God is), confession, forgiveness, petitions.

In , Jesus shares a parable to encourage the disciples to pray. There may be times when we know what we should do, but there is still the lack of ‘want to’. Jesus shares a short parable to give the disciples then and now encouragement that God wants to hear and answer our prayers according to His will.

Prayer is one of the most vital disciplines of the Christian faith. When you think about it, it is truly amazing. You get to talk with the God of the universe. How amazing is that? As amazing as it is, prayer seems to be one of the parts of the Christian life that many struggle with.

Jesus does not want us to struggle with this wonderful gift. Rather, He wants us to flourish in it. That is one reason why Jesus quickly and thoroughly replied when His disciples asked Him to teach them how to pray.

After Jesus shared a model of prayer and an encouragement to pray, He took it to another level and shared with His disciples three types of prayers that will be experienced by those who seek to have a vital relationship with God. These are seen in .

Luke 11:9–10 CSB

“So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

This morning, I want to look at the first type of prayer that Jesus referred to in this passage: asking.

Asking

This is commonly what is thought of when most people talk about prayer. They think about coming to God with their requests and asking God to do something about the situations that they bring. This kind of prayer is one in which typically comes with an immediate or near-immediate answer.

We like these kinds of prayers. We might not necessarily get the answer that we were looking for, but we get an answer pretty quickly nonetheless.

Why should we ask?

In Jesus’ response in verses 9 and 10, He shows us two major reasons as to why we should come to God with our asking prayers.

The word that Jesus uses here for “ask” in verses 9 and 10 is an interesting word. It is a Greek word that refers to someone who is inferior asking a superior for something. It is interesting to me that Jesus never uses this word when He asks for something from the Father. He uses a Greek word that is associated with someone asking something from someone who is on equal terms with them.

The first reason that we should come to God with asking prayers is that we all have a great need. We all have fallen short of God’s design and are in need of help. No matter how talented or resourceful we think that we are, there are some things that we cannot do for ourselves. We need the help of One greater than ourselves. For this reason, we are invited to come to God in prayer asking for the things in which we need.

The second reason we should come to God asking in prayer is closely linked to the first, and it is that God is the One with a great supply.

= The earth and everything in it, the world and its inhabitants, belong to the LORD, for he laid its foundation on the seas and established it on the rivers.

Psalm 24:1–2 CSB

The earth and everything in it, the world and its inhabitants, belong to the Lord; for he laid its foundation on the seas and established it on the rivers.

We can come confidently to God asking in prayer for our needs because He holds possession of everything. There is no need that we might have that He cannot meet. There may be times when we feel like we are running on “insufficient funds,” but the good news is that we worship and serve a God that has more than enough. Not only does He have more than enough, He cares enough to want to help us with our needs.

Philippians 4:19 CSB

And my God will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

If this is true, why do we not see this happening more in our lives? It could be that we are not asking properly.

How do we ask?

Ask properly

1 John 5:14–15 CSB

This is the confidence we have before him: If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears whatever we ask, we know that we have what we have asked of him.

The key phrase in this verse is that we ask “according to His will.” It is not just about asking, but making sure that we are asking for His will above all things. What we may want may not be the best for us. When we surrender to His will, we show that we truly believe that we are in need and that God knows best.

In the New Testament, James shows us that sometimes we do not get what we ask for in prayer because our motives behind it are all wrong.

James 4:3 CSB

You ask and don’t receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.

We can learn how to say the right things and appear to be ‘righteous’ in our requests, but our heart cannot be masked. God listens to our heart as much as He does our words. He knows before we even come to Him in prayer what the motive behind that prayer is.

If we want to experience the power of God in prayer, we need to make sure that our motives behind our prayers are what they ought to be. By doing this, we get to the answer and seeing God work in mighty ways quicker.

Ask specifically

Another issue that we have many times in prayer is that we may pray too generally. I understand that there are times when you may not have the time to go into great detail — like when Simon Peter was sinking in the water after walking on it to Jesus. When we pray in general terms, we may completely miss the answer when God does give it. It is in these moments that we begin to think that God is not listening or does not care when the truth is that He has already answered that prayer. When you pray, are you asking God specifically and seeing His answers clearly?

Conclusion

Prayer was a vital part of the ministry of Jesus while He was on this earth. It is still to be a vital part of His disciples’ lives today. It is through prayer that we hear and the heart of God. How is your prayer life doing? If you are like most people, you might say that it could be better. One of the reasons for that is that maybe we are not asking properly or specifically.

God wants us to know Him in an intimate way. Coming to Him by faith in prayer is one way that He has given to us to strengthen that relationship. I would encourage you to heed the words of Jesus and come to Him asking for Him to do what only He is capable of doing in your circumstances. He is able to meet your need, but more than that, He wants to!