Scripture Daily

Context No. 3163 of 4322 · Luke

Context · Reflection

Luke 11:9-13: in context

9“I tell you, keep asking, and it will be given you. Keep seeking, and you will find. Keep knocking, and it will be opened to you. 10For everyone who asks receives. He who seeks finds. To him who knocks it will be opened. 11“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he won’t give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? 12Or if he asks for an egg, he won’t give him a scorpion, will he? 13If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”

Jesus teaches persistent prayer: keep asking, and it will be given you; keep seeking, and you will find; keep knocking, and it will be opened. Then he reasons from the human to the divine. If your son asks for bread, will you give him a stone? For a fish, a snake? For an egg, a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?

Two encouragements to pray sit here. First, persistence: keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking, a settled, ongoing turning to God. And second, the character of the Father we ask. Jesus argues from the lesser to the greater: even flawed, sinful human fathers know how to give good gifts to their children; how much more will the perfect Father give good things, above all the Holy Spirit, to those who ask. Prayer rests on the goodness of the One we pray to. We do not have to wring gifts from a reluctant God; we ask a Father eager to give, who will never hand a scorpion to a child who asks for an egg.

Do I pray persistently, resting in the truth that my heavenly Father is far more eager to give good gifts than any earthly father?

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