The Essence of Prayer XXII – Luke 11:5-13 Persistent Prayer

In Luke 11:1-13 the Lord Jesus is teaching on prayer.  In Luke 11:1-4 He gives the pieces of prayer.  In Luke 11:5-13 He teaches persistent prayer and He uses everyday stories to emphasize this teaching.

In Luke 11: 5-8 He teaches the value of persistent prayer through the story of a man coming to his neighbor’s house in the middle of the night to borrow bread.  His neighbor will not get out of bed simply because he is a friend.  It takes the persistent knocking of the one who is in need for the neighbor to get up and give the bread.

In Luke 11:9, 10 He exhorts to persistent prayer by giving encouragement that all such prayer will be answered.  The believer does not know what timetable God will take in answering prayer – 10 minutes or 10 years – but he can be encouraged that God will answer prayer.  Persistent prayer involves fervency and faith.  When the believer has not received a quick answer, he often forgets to keep praying.  The one seeking bread kept knocking, probably louder and louder.  The believer must keep praying for those things that have not yet been received.

In Luke 11:5-13 using the analogy of the one who is knocking at the door, the Lord Jesus gives amazing encouragement to persistent prayer.  The Lord Jesus gives promises of answers for persistent prayer and there are no qualifications.  There is a breadth of opportunity that the Lord Jesus is giving for prayer.  The one who asks receives, the one who seeks finds, the one who knocks will have it opened according to God’s purpose.

Sometimes the believer asks for things that are not good for him.  The Lord always gives good gifts.  Psalm 84:11  “No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly.”  Sometimes what the Lord gives is different from what the believer has asked for but it is always better.  And the best gift is the Holy Spirit who enables prayer and gives sight of God’s gifts as best.

The believer has a tendency to pray sporadically. We need to listen to the Lord Jesus when He encourages us to persistent prayer.