Luke 11:5 – 13 Asking and Receiving

Luke 11:5 – 13 Asking and Receiving

And he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend to whom he goes at midnight and says, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, for a friend of mine has arrived at my house from a journey and I have nothing to offer him,' and he says in reply from within, 'Do not bother me; the door has already been locked and my children and I are already in bed. I cannot get up to give you anything.' I tell you, if he does not get up to give him the loaves because of their friendship, he will get up to give him whatever he needs because of his persistence. "And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Who among you would hand his son a snake when he asks for a fish? Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg?
If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?"

Jesus uses a parable to talk about asking and receiving. He gives the example of asking an acquaintance for something in the middle of the night, an inconvenient time to say the least. If you do not get what you need because of the relationship, then you eventually get what you need because of your persistence. Then follows a very famous triplet: Ask and you shall receive, Seek and you will find, Knock and it will be opened to you. First we must make an effort – to ask, to seek, to knock, before anything else happens. Putting yourself out there by asking etc. and persisting, showing you really want it, must happen first before you get anything.

Then Jesus segues to speak of fathers in general and his Father in particular . . . about a father’s loving care for his children. He closes with a question about a specific gift from his Father – something that I almost missed. Jesus says, “If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the holy Spirit to those who ask him?"

I need to think about this for a minute. Jesus seems to be drawing a parallel from human fathers giving their children “good gifts”, (fish, eggs, etc.) to God our Father giving us the Holy Spirit. Is the Holy Spirit the “good gift” the Father gives to us for our well-being? What does that mean? I have long had a “thing” for the Holy Spirit, for his importance in our world and in our faith. Is Jesus saying that if I have the Holy Spirit in my life then everything about me should and would be changed? How and why I do things would change, my motivation, my understanding, my accomplishments, my goals, my thoughts, words and deeds? The passage from Galations 5:22 that lists the fruits of the spirits comes to mind: love, joy, peace, patient endurance, kindness, generosity, faith, mildness and self control. I think through this passage Jesus is trying to tell us how important the Holy Spirit is to him and to us as we live out our lives. Come Holy Spirit.