One of the greatest gifts believers have in this life is the gift of prayer, and one of the greatest lessons on prayer is found in Luke 11. The disciples ask Jesus to teach them to pray, which is an excellent prayer by the way! Notice that he answers that prayer right away! He gives them the Model Prayer, which provides a structured example for their prayers. Then Jesus gives them a two points of encouragement for prayer.
The first lesson is persistence or perseverance. Jesus tells the story of a friend who simply will not stop making a request and as a result gets what he needs. Then Jesus attaches one of the more precious promises of prayer in a threefold manner. Ask, seek, and knock and it will be given, you will find, and it will be opened to you! (Literally, the commands are “keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking!) In other words, keep praying; the answer will come!
The second lesson, from the story of the fish and egg, is that not only will God answer, but he will answer in the way that is best for you! Jesus says, “how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” Does that mean the Father gives the answer to the Spirit who then delivers it to the one praying? Or does that mean that the one praying receives an overflowing filling of the Holy Spirit? Maybe it means both! Whatever it means, though, it is good for you, and God is being good to you in answering this way!
The only thing left for us now is to pray! And pray! And then pray! While we pray and as often as we pray, trust the Lord that He will answer in His time, and His answer is going to be good because He is good!
Sometimes I get "snagged" by the oddest bits. I was reading Lk. 9:7-9 and just started wondering about Herod. Why would he even begin to take seriously some of the rumors that John had been raised from the dead? Being raised from the dead certainly wasn't very common! In the Old Testament I can only think of two incidents (II Kings 4:35 and II Kings 13:21) and up until this point in the New Testament only two more (Lk. 7:15 and Lk. 8:55). Lazarus comes later (and isn't it odd that only John put L's story in his gospel??). Lk. 7:22 gives a hint that there could be more dead people raised. But I wonder what triggered Herod's fear of John's coming back to life? Herod was an Idumean (Edomite), does that give any clues? Did Herod believe in ghosts? I suppose though that only one dead person coming back to life would have been enough (once people started talking and facts could be substantiated) to shake Herod's shriveled little conscience! Just wondering.
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