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 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

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Luke 11:5-13

5 Then he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, 6 because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.' 7 "Then the one inside answers, 'Don't bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can't get up and give you anything.' 8 I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man's boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs. 9 "So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. 11 "Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" 

NIV

Once again, we are faced with a full teaching from Jesus which we cannot divide into smaller segments. However, there are several truths we could focus on separately. We have the parable that is the setting for the truth Jesus wants us to grasp. The key word in this parable is boldness. However, when we look into the Greek we find the word, anadeia which means shamelessness, impudence. Now Jesus tells us to ask, and it will be given to us; seek and we will find; knock and the door will be opened. The key here is the word boldness, or rather to ask the lord shamelessly, unabashed not embarrassed. This gives us the mindset of being humble, without pridefulness, bowing ourselves fully under the grace and authority of our Lord, knowing that we are to simply ask with full faith, and he will give to us what we ask which would be good gifts. James tells us that every good and perfect gift is from above, comes down from the Father. Of course, we would not ask for a million dollars or a bright shiny new sports car or pickup truck. We would not ask for something that would spend on our own evil desires. James also tells us some of the reasons we do not get what we ask for. It could be on account we have some quarrels among ourselves. A more wooden translation is wars and controversies within the body of Christ, or perhaps within the local church. This would translate more like, not truly having pure love for one another, but being prideful, envious, jealous, or holding some ill feelings, hurt feeling, bitterness, judgmentalism or some other non-loving attitude. How could we expect God to honor our request when any of those kinds of attitudes or feelings are within us? James also tells us about having wrong motives, as we already thought that we should not ask for some expensive toys for our own pleasures. However, when we come to the Lord, completely humble, without all this garbage, asking for His good pleasure in us, he will give us good gifts, those He desires us to have, such as the Holy Spirit, with all his gifts, fruit, armor, and everything else in between. If we can simply humble ourselves before Him, yielding completely, asking with full faith, He will do great things in us, for us the through us.