Enduring Word and Commentary
Luke 11:9-13
Pray with a childlike confidence.
“So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will
be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him
who knocks it will be opened. If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he
give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or
if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If 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!”
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to
you: We are told to keep on asking, seeking and knocking. “All three verbs are
continuous: Jesus is not speaking of single activities, but of those that persist.” (Morris)
These descriptions speak of an earnestness and intensity; all too often, our prayers are
merely wishes cast up to heaven, and this is not real prayer.
If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Any
human father loves to bless his children, and would never answer a simple request for
something good with something evil. If that is case with us, how much more will God
answer us, though sometimes it doesn’t seem so!
How much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask
Him! God especially loves to give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him. We never need
doubt God’s desire to pour out His Spirit. The problem is in our receiving, not in God’s
desire to give.