The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

Luke 11:5-10, “And He said to them, ‘Suppose one of you shall have a friend, and shall go to him at midnight, and say to him, “Friend, lend me three loaves;
6 for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him”;
7 and from inside he shall answer and say, “Do not bother me; the door has already been shut and my children and I are in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.”
8 “I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs.
9 “And I say to you, ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you.
10 “For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it shall be opened.”

Remember when you were a child and wanted something desperately? Your friends had one; it was all the rage of those in your age group, and you just had to have one like it! Your parents said it wasn’t that important; but you were not satisfied with their answer. You just kept begging and pleading until they finally gave in and said, “Okay, you can have it.” Jesus’ illustration in our verses above was much like that. He was teaching His disciples that the key to answered prayer is persistence.

“I prayed, but God didn’t answer,” you say. Well, there could be numerous reasons He did not answer. One possibility is that the timing was wrong for an immediate answer. The LORD knows things we do not know. Had we received the answer on our schedule, we would have missed something better that we did not know was coming. Another possibility is that He wanted to know how desperately we wanted what we were asking. Still another possibility is that what we wanted would have been detrimental to us in a way we had never imagined!

Still, we are not to give up! The words “ask…seek…knock” are in the present tense. “Keep on asking; keep on seeking; keep on knocking” –just never give up praying! If you belong to the LORD –I mean, if you have trusted Him as your LORD and Savior, you are His child. He wants always the best for your life. And, much like our parents, He knows more about us than we know about ourselves. So, trust must be coupled with persistence.

Winston Churchill once punctuated the conclusion of a speech with one simple phrase. “Never give up. Never give up. Never. Never. Never.” It would do us well to remember and implement those words in our prayers. “LORD, teach us to pray!”

Heartily in Christ Jesus,

(Dado III)

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.
Springdale, Arkansas 72764
United States of America

“We never know that Christ is all we need until He becomes all that we have.” – Corrie ten Boom