Luke 11:5-13 5 Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6 a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ 7 And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ 8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need. 9 “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. 10 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. 11 “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
Here we see that a man went to another friend to ask for bread at midnight, because he had a friend visiting, he had nothing to serve his friend. His friend did not want to open the door because he already went to sleep. But because of his persistence, his friend gave him what he needed. Lord Jesus continued to say that ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. Here we see that the door might not open immediately, we need to continue knocking until the door is open. What do we ask for here, we ask for the Holy Spirit. Heavenly Father is willing to give His Holy Spirit to those who ask him. You might not receive it right away, you need to pray until you receive it, and seek until you find it.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:3)
The person mentioned in the above parable went to his friend to ask for bread because of his poverty, the poor in spirit asks for the Holy Spirit. The person had nothing to serve his friend, so he went to borrow bread from another friend. We should always draw near to the Lord, to ask for the Holy Spirit, and rely on the Lord to help others with what we receive from the Lord.
John 15 5 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
Here Lord Jesus said that he is the vine and we are the branches. We must remain in the Lord in order to bear fruit. We cannot bear fruit and we cannot do anything apart from him. If we don’t abide in the Lord, we cannot bear any spiritual fruit. We cannot rely on our own ability to bear fruit, but rely totally on the Lord to bear fruit.
Luke 18:1-8 1 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. 2 He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. 3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ 4 “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’” 6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8 I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”
This parable is similar to the previous parable. Lord Jesus wants us to always pray and not give up. This parable talks about a widow who went to an unjust judge to appeal justice against her adversary. At first, the judge refused, but because of her persistence, the judge gave her justice. We should keep praying until the Lord answers our prayers.
May God bless you and your family. 😊
