Scripture
10For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. 11 “You fathers—if your children ask for a fish, do you give them a snake instead? 12Or if they ask for an egg, do you give them a scorpion? Of course not! 13So if you sinful people 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.” Luke 11:10-13
Observation/Application
I love it when I’m reading a very familiar passage and, out of nowhere, I see something I didn’t see before. This morning, for example, I’m reading the teachings of Jesus as he answers the disciples question. They asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. In fact, this is the only time in the Gospels they directly ask Jesus to teach them something. They saw that He prayed differently than the religious leaders they had grown up watching. He talked to The Father and The Holy Spirit like He had a relationship with them. Jesus went away to pray so that when he came to pray for others there was an authority like they’d never known. It wasn’t a religious transaction, it was relational transformation and they wisely wanted to know how to pray like this. In fact, Jesus starts out by teaching them to pray “Our Father” which speaks to both intimacy and community. He tells them to pray with consistency, insistency, persistency- keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking. It’s an invitation to relationship, not mindless repetition. Jesus uses the example of an earthly father providing for his children instead of playing tricks on them. They ask for a fish they aren’t going to be surprised by a snake. Then, Jesus zigs when I think He’s going to zag. He moves from “what” to “who”. We are thinking of our list of needs, which He does care about, “daily bread”, for example. Jesus is teaching, what we need isn’t the first thing we should be asking for. Ask for the Holy Spirit first! Then, when you have the Holy Spirit with you and in you, when you have invited the Holy Spirit into your needs, you literally have everything you need, because you have God in the middle of your needs. The focus shifts from my list to my Lord when I ask for the Holy Spirit first! He actually teaches me how to pray, “26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.” (Romans 8:26-27). I never saw this before. The disciples said, “Teach us how to pray”. Jesus answers by shifting the focus from “how” and “what” to “who” we should be praying with. My Priority in prayer is The Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit come and fill me and show me how to walk through the challenges of this day. Guide me in meeting the need for my family, my church, my community. I can’t see the way through but I invite You to guide me through. It’s relational not transactional. My priority is the person of the Holy Spirit who will then help me address the problem. There’s a reason Jesus, after the resurrection, told His disciples to not try to do anything without The Holy Spirit: 4Once when he was eating with them, he commanded them, “Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift he promised, as I told you before. 5John baptized with water, but in just a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 1:4-5). They didn’t listen. They kept asking about the timing of His return. Jesus said, don’t worry about timing, just received The Holy Spirit. They tried problem solving while they waited. We only have 11 disciples. We need 12. Let’s throw some dice and figure it out. Jesus never told them to do that. When we don’t have the Holy Spirit we focus on questions that we don’t need answered and we solve problems by old means (“Then they cast lots, and Matthias was selected to become an apostle with the other eleven. “Acts 1:26) instead of fresh leading.
Prayer
Holy Spirit I started this with you so what makes me think I can do this without you. I bring you all my strategies and experience and I lay them down. What I need is You. What I ask for is You! Just You! Holy Spirit you see the piling up of needs and I’m inviting You into ever single one of them. I’m not even sure how to pray for some of them and I ask that You would teach me how. I'm taking Your hand and I'm going to walk this year out with You!
留言