Keep On Asking

Keep On Asking

Read: Luke 11:5-10

“Ask and it will be given to you.”

Luke 11:9

“Pray as if everything depended on your prayer.”

—William Booth

IN WORD Jesus has just finished a curious parable about a man banging persistently at his neighbor’s door in the middle of the night, asking for an inordinate amount of bread. This is prayer, Jesus says. It doesn’t matter if the hour is inappropriate, the request is large, and the initial answer is no. True prayer means desperation outweighs protocol.

Some translations capture the continuous nature of this verse. Jesus implied to His disciples that they are to keep on asking, keep on seeking, and keep on knocking; then they will receive. We don’t know why persistence is required; Jesus doesn’t tell us that. But the fact that it is required is clear. Prayer calls for boldness and relentlessness.

If you are like most people, you pray about a matter for a while. Then, having not heard from God, you give up, assuming it wasn’t His will to answer. But nowhere in the Bible are we told that God’s silence means “no.” In fact, Jesus demonstrates to a Canaanite woman that His silence means “keep on asking” (Matthew 15:22-28). Scripture never gives us permission to drop a request because we got no immediate answer. We are to have a no-ceasing attitude to our prayers (1 Thessalonians 5:17). If God wants to show us our prayers are unscriptural or out of line with His will, He will show us. If He wants to say “no,” He will actually say it. Silence is not “no.”

IN DEED Often our prayers are characterized by tentativeness and transience. They are not confident declarations of His will in a situation and expectant invitations for Him to RSVP in power. While we should always be open for Him to redirect our prayers, or even to say “no,” we should never assume that a slow answer, by our standards, is a non- answer. Jesus never gives us a hint that God is rejecting us in His silence. Like the farmer who waits for his harvest, we are to wait for His answers. Jesus is clear: Keep on asking!