Prayer for Dummies
- Jesus happens to be praying. Surprise!
- One of his disciples wants to know how to pray better and so commences Prayer 101. Interested? Go check it out.
- Jesus offers a little illustration for how prayer works.
- Say your friend knocks on your door at 2 a.m., "Dude, can I borrow some food?"
- Your friend explains that his buddy, who's been on the road, just stopped by, but there's no more chips and Mountain Dew left to offer him, and the store's closed.
- At first you tell him to go away. You're all warm and cozy in your bed. Case closed.
- But your friend persists. The conversation goes something like this.
- "Come on, dude."
- "No."
- "Please, dude."
- "No. That's final."
- "Dude?"
- Growl.
- "I thought we were friends, dude."
- "Bah! Okay. Here's some food."
- The lesson? If you're annoying enough, you get what you want. Prayer is basically annoying God, who will eventually give you what you need.
- Jesus draws some conclusions: ask, seek, knock, and you will get what you're after.
- Jesus gives another illustration, which focuses on the fact that disciples should pray to God as "Father" (recall 11:2).
- If a son asks his dad for a fish or an egg, he's not going to give the boy a snake or scorpion. So if dumb, wicked dads can do it on a smaller scale, it's pretty certain that God the Father will dole out the Holy Spirit to whoever asks.