Ask Boldly

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. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

The eleventh chapter of Luke opens with a simple request. Jesus has been praying, and when he finishes, one of his disciples says, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” Jesus answers right away with a short prayer, shorter than the version from Matthew’s Gospel that many of us say on Sunday mornings. It would be easy to stop there. But if we do, we miss what Jesus says next. He has given his disciples words to pray. Now he wants to teach them something about the heart of the one who prays.

He tells a story. A man has a friend arrive at midnight, and he has nothing to set before him. So he goes next door, knocks, and asks to borrow three loaves of bread. The neighbor calls back from bed: the door is locked, the children are asleep, don’t bother me. But Jesus says the neighbor will get up and give him what he needs because of the man’s anaideia (an-eye-DAY-ah), a Greek word the NIV translates as “shameless audacity.” We have another word for it, one that came into English through Yiddish from Hebrew: chutzpah (HOOTS-pah). The man has chutzpah. Yet we shouldn’t overlook the friendship. You don’t pound on a stranger’s door at midnight. It’s friendship that brings the man to that door and gives him the nerve to knock. And notice that he isn’t asking for himself. He’s asking on behalf of someone else.

Then Jesus turns to parents and children. What father, asked for a fish, would hand his child a snake? Parents want to give good things to their children. They don’t grant every request right away, and they don’t grant every request at all, because a loving parent weighs what the child asks for against what is truly good for the child. “How much more,” Jesus says, “will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

The lesson in all of this, it seems to me, is that we should ask, and ask boldly. Asking is not a sign of weakness or a failure of faith. It is an act of love. When we ask a friend for help, we’re saying that we trust them and that our relationship can bear the weight of our need. We give them a chance to respond generously. The same is true with God. Our bold asking grows out of the relationship our Father wants to have with us.

So ask. Ask for the gifts you need and the gifts you want, even the ones you aren’t sure about. Ask for others as well as for yourself. Keep asking. Have a little holy chutzpah. Then trust that the One who hears you knows how to give good gifts, and that the best gift of all, his own Spirit, is offered to everyone who asks.

Gracious Father, thank you for calling us your friends and your children, and for inviting us to come to you with our needs. Give us the courage to ask boldly and the faith to keep asking. When the answer is not what we expected, help us trust your goodness. Above all, fill us with your Holy Spirit. In Jesus’ name, amen.

This devotional was written and read by Jim Stovall.

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by the members of the congregation of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. With these devotionals, we want to remind listeners on a daily basis of the love and grace that God extends to all human beings, no matter their location, status, or condition in life.

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First United Methodist Church is a lively, spirit-filled congregation whose goal is to spread the message of love and grace into our community and throughout the world. We are located on the web at https://1stchurch.org/.