Week 39 Luke 11
Luke says that right after the Lord gave the disciples a sample prayer (the Lord’s Prayer) he kept right on talking about the same topic: then, teaching them more about prayer he used this illustration… The illustration is about an annoying neighbour. And the point of that story is: keep on asking. A rule for prayer: be persistent. Pray repetitively. Over & over & over.
It’s a helpful tip. I already know that faith is one of the key things I need for prayer to work. Faith is something that I either have or don’t have. If I have it my prayer can be successful. If I don’t have it it can’t. So I somehow have to get faith for my prayer to work. It’s a prerequisite. Faith first…then a successful prayer result.
Anyway the guy in the story goes next door at midnight and hammers on the neighbour’s door again & again & again until he gets what he’s after. So that’s a bit of a different quality than faith. The guy doesn’t seem to need a special gift to keep banging on the door. He just has to do it and keep doing it.
Q: how do I get prayer to work? A: keep on asking.
Note: quotes from Luke 11:5 9 (NLT). Follow-up question: Did the Keep-On-Asking Guy need faith too? Maybe. But it doesn’t say so. Just persistence. (I read Luke 17:5-6 a bit later.)