Unless you’ve been in a coma for the past couple of years, I don’t need to tell you that our world has gone crazy. The question is, what do you DO when your world goes crazy?
Well, here’s what Jesus taught twelve men to do who lived life with Him for three years. As the months of those three years advanced, the lives of these men became more crazy and frightening. They had no doubt also been totally CONFUSED and probably a bit ANNOYED at how it seemed that at the busiest moments…sometimes at the most intense moments…Jesus would be AWAY praying. Yet, they eventually get the point; prayer is important. In Luke 11:1 we find that they finally ask him to teach them to pray.
Luke 11:1 Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray…
And, in the twelve verses to follow, He does just that. In the next three verses, He gives them the model prayer. He ends His teaching to them on prayer with the encouraging truth that because we are God’s children, He will ALWAYS respond to our prayers with an answer that is good. But six of these verses, right in the middle of His answer to their request to teach us to pray is a section where Christ teaches the twelve and us where we need to invest our energy…and it’s NOT in worrying.
And, believe it or not, Jesus is literally teaching us here that we will not see our world change, until we be become ANNOYING! What??? Let’s read:
Luke 11:5-8 And he said to them, "Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, 6 for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; 7 and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything’? 8 I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs.
If you’re not familiar with the word impudence, you may be shocked at its meaning:
Impudence - shamelessness - offensively bold behaviour
The point is that God wants us to come to Him in prayer in a manner which would get us arrested for harassment…if we petitioned someone else in such a manner. 5am…we’re knocking. They finally open the door and let us in…we follow them around the house asking…they go into the bathroom to take a shower…we stand at the bathroom door knocking and asking…we follow them to work and go into the office and as they TRY to work…we ask…we’re back at midnight…knocking and asking.
We struggle with this behaviour because we KNOW that this would NOT go well with other people.
God’s is not like us…He WANTS us to “harass” Him with prayer. In fact when we HARASS Him with prayer is when the world around us begins to change!