Daily Devotion March 27

March 27: Luke 11:5-8

KJV Key Verse: Luke 11:5
5 And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves;

Devotion:
I like the way Jesus brought up this parable just after teaching us about the Lord’s Prayer. Why would He launch directly into us being there for each other after teaching us how to prayer if He did not want us to apply the sentiment to prayer? Jesus taught people that prayer was not just a place where we could praise God and ask for forgiveness but also a time where we could ask Him as a friend for things just as we ask friends for stuff.

When we ask friends and neighbours to help us out it is normally when we need help and we ask out of love or out of desperation. God wants us to recognise that we can come to Him and ask out of love or desperation as well. God is much more than the best friend or neighbour we may have because He is willing and able to ask so much more from Him than from anybody or anything else!

Even our best friend may well turn us away of we push too far or if we ask too much. God is not going to turn us away. Our best friends will turn us down for things that they cannot do or things they think are wrong and we should not expect God to give us those things that even friends would turn us down for. God is Holy. That means He is not going to entertain sin and if we dare ask Him to avert His eyes while we sin or ask Him to help us in our sin we really should not expect anything less than to be told off by Him! But because we don’t see Him face to face and because He does not verbally talk with us we often go too far without thinking about where we are at.

The last point raised here is that we do have to be persistent with our prayers; but it is not that we should keep asking God until He gives in and says OK but rather that we need to think about what we are asking for. So when we repeat our prayers we are having to think about what we are asking of God. That then makes us think about whether we are asking the right things…

Points to Ponder:
Do you just pray and expect an answer?

How often do you really think about your prayers?