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Stephen F. Austin. Sam Houston. William Barret Travis. David Crockett. Buddy Holly. Tom Landry. Nolan Ryan. 
And now, Sid Bass.
Thank you, Mr. Bass, for your service to this great Republic of Texas. The entire state is eternally grateful for your generous contribution and will forever remember your significant gift of assistance during this hour of desperate need.
Eternally Indebted,
Allan
One last thing about the DeAndre Jordan situation: it has made Mark Cuban a sympathetic figure. Crazy, huh? You know that Jordan has done an under-handed, diabolical, evil thing when it causes me to actually feel sorry for Cuban.
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Now, back to our look at Jesus’ parable in Luke 11 and, today, what I find the most interesting about the story. Our Lord concludes his comments regarding the story with this often-overlooked line: “How much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
Wait a second! Holy Spirit? I thought we were talking about bread! I thought this story was about our basic needs, the fundamental necessities.
We’ve seen in this story that God promises to give us everything we need and he promises to answer our prayers when we ask for what we need. Now Jesus closes it out by telling us that what we really need is the Holy Spirit. So ask for it! This is what you pray for: the Spirit. And when you do, God says, “Yes!”
This is not an open-ended teaching here. It’s not a blank check. It’s never been about asking for anything you want. God never promises to give us everything we want; but he always guarantees to give us every single thing we need. And what we need is God’s Spirit. So pray for it.
This is hard for us. We don’t really know how to do this. We know how to pray for sick people. We know how to get our names on the prayer list and how to pray for my relatives and friends of my relatives and for the second cousin of my insurance guy’s mother. Who lives in Kentucky. Yeah, we’re very good at praying for healing. We know how to pray for what we want.
Give me this new job, Lord. Help her fall in love with me, God. Father, get me out of this traffic. We pray for what we want.
Lord, keep my children safe. God, help our church to grow. Father, help our candidate win the election. Lord, help our Wednesday nights to be successful. We know how to pray for what we want.
Jesus tells us to pray for what we need. And what we need, he says, is the Holy Spirit.
What would it look like to pray for the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit convicts hearts of sin, right? Can you pray that? “Father, please convict me of the sin in my life. Please shine a bright light on the sins in my heart, God. Convict me of my sin. Expose it, Lord. And deal with it.” That’s not necessarily what I want. But it’s certainly what I need.
What would it look like to pray for what we need instead of what we want? The Holy Spirit helps us in our weaknesses, right? Can you pray that? “Father, maybe I need to go through some suffering. Maybe I need a season of washing and purifying. I know your Spirit will help me, Lord. You know what I really need, God. Maybe I need to be weak for a while.” Not what I want; maybe what I need.
What would it look like? Jesus calls the Spirit the “Spirit of Truth.” Can you pray that? “Lord, give me your Spirit of Truth. Show me what’s really true in my life, the things I can’t see, the things I ignore, the things I neglect. Show me the truth about myself. And force me to deal with it, God.” Not what I want, but what I need.
What if you went this whole weekend, from this moment through Sunday night, and only prayed for what you really need and did not pray at all for what you merely want? What if you took our Lord Jesus completely at his word? What if you really trusted him with what he says about prayer: that God provides everything we need, that God will answer us when we pray for what we really need, and that what we really need is his Holy Spirit?
What would it look like?
Maybe you’ll need help. Maybe flipping to the “fruit of the Spirit” passage in Galatians 5 could be a good starting place for you. Pray for more of that Holy Spirit character in your own life.
Pray for joy. Not joy because you sold your house or you got the raise. Joy because even though you’re going through a very difficult time, God is mercifully sustaining you. Or joy because the blood of Jesus is washing you.
Pray for patience. Yeah, I know, you’ve heard your whole life not to ever pray for patience. Jesus says pray for what you need, not what you want. It’s the Spirit. Pray for patience.
Pray for kindness. You know that person you’re not nice to. Be specific. Ask the Holy Spirit to break your heart for that person.
Pray for self-control. Part of your life is probably out of control. Part of your life is led by your impulses, your urges and desires, not by God’s Spirit. The way you eat, the way you experience sex, the hours you work, the hobby you pursue — pray for the Holy Spirit to bring those things under his control.
What would it look like?
Peace,
Allan
I can’t say anything more clever or more accurate than what Bob Sturm has already said: “I want him fouled every minute of their first game here. Six hour game. 148 free throws. We will set records.”
Who knew that DeAndre Jordan converts a higher percentage of his free throws than his free agency signings?
This gutless about-face will go down in Mavs history with the Roy Tarpley flame-out and the Sean Bradley signing. This sucker-punch sinks the Mavs for the foreseeable future, maybe for a decade, maybe longer. Dirk doesn’t survive this. Neither does Carlisle. Compare it to Jackie Smith’s drop or Nelson Cruz’s bobble. The franchise may never recover.
If this is the kind of integrity Jordan has, no wonder he gags at the stripe. He clearly doesn’t have the nerve to be a number one guy anywhere. No stomach for it. It’s sickening.
Allan
The sleepy friend in Jesus’ story in Luke 11 doesn’t want to help out his neighbor. “Don’t bother me,” he says. “Are you crazy? My kids are asleep!” The way this guy responds to the late night knocking is what makes this story so real. All of us who’ve ever spent two hours wrestling with the kids to finally get them to sleep can relate.
He doesn’t want to be disturbed. He doesn’t want to get up. The only reason he does is so he can get some peace and quiet. “I’m not giving you the bread because I love you; I’m giving you the bread so you’ll go away and leave me alone.”
Yes, this story is about prayer. But God is not the grumpy guy in bed. The guy in bed is a human. That’s why we can relate to him so easily and maybe almost feel sorry for him. The story is an exercise in contrast. Jesus is telling us, “Look, this is your experience when you’re asking for something you need from a neighbor; but this is not what happens when you ask God for something you need.”
If you, even though you’re evil and sinful and selfish; if you, even in all your failures and sins and shortcomings; if you know how to give good gifts, how much more your Father in heaven? If this grumpy guy in bed finally got up and responded, how much more your Father in heaven? We can trust that God cares for us and that he hears us and that he will answer us when we pray.
“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.”
Your prayers will be heard and answered. Jesus repeats the same promise three times. He says almost the exact same thing three times, so distinctly: it will, it will, it will.
Why, Lord?
Because that’s how things work in the Kingdom of God. That’s how my Father operates.
“For everyone who asks, receives; everyone who seeks finds; everyone who knocks, the door is opened.”
That’s the rule.
Jesus speaks so unconditionally here. It’s so clear. Let’s not ever water this down with our human understandings. When Jesus tells us things this clearly, let’s not distort it with our own wisdom. Let’s believe him. And if questions and difficulties come up — if it ever feels like God’s not answering or not listening to our prayers — let’s keep trusting these promises. God is taking care of the questions and difficulties. Our job is to fully accept and hold on to his word. And keep praying. He’ll answer.
Peace,
Allan
“Give us each day our daily bread.”
“Lend me three loaves of bread.”
“If your son asks for bread…”
In Luke 11, Jesus gives his disciples a model prayer, a short story about prayer, and some comments that tie the prayer and the story to us. And we don’t have to read too hard to hear that Jesus is talking about our most basic, most fundamental needs. He’s talking about bread. Daily bread. What I need every single day to survive. Bread. Like our ancestors in the desert, if God doesn’t give us the bread today, we are going to die. And we have no choice but to go to bed tonight depending on God to provide that same bread tomorrow.
This attitude of complete dependence on God for everything calls for us to acknowledge that we are poor. We are needy. We are totally dependent on the Father for every breath we take and every bite we eat. Every molecule of air and every drop of water is a gracious gift of our God’s provision.
Look closely at the prayer Jesus gives us. He tells us to pray for our daily food, for forgiveness from sin, and for protection from evil. WE don’t make any of that happen. Only our God in his mercy grants us these gifts. There is no moment of any day, no minute of any hour, that we are not depending on God.
But we don’t act like it.
It’s hard to pray for food when my belly is full, my fridge is packed, my pantry is stuffed, the supermarket is open 24-hours, and I get paid this Friday. I need God for lots of things, but I don’t need him for food. I’ve got that covered.
It’s hard to pray for forgiveness when I’m so much better than most of the people at work or on my street. I’m no saint, but I haven’t killed anybody. Besides, I’m usually the one being wronged! I need God for lots of things, but I don’t need him for forgiveness. I’m pretty good.
It’s hard to pray for protection from evil when I feel so safe. I would never cheat on my taxes or my wife, I would never steal from my boss or sell drugs. I’m not in danger. Of course, I don’t have a complete handle on my greed or lust or anger, but I can deal with it OK. I need God for lots of things, but not protection from evil. I’m not going to slip.
We don’t pray for rain because we’ve heard the forecast: there’s not any. We don’t pray for healing because we’ve seen the MRI: I’m not sick. We don’t pray for peace because we’ve got our 401(k)s: I can live comfortably until I’m 103!
Jesus’ story says we have to realize and embrace our poverty, our neediness. When we pray from a position of wealth, all we do is ask God for what we want instead of what we need. And we use prayer to just raise our standard of living.
Father, give me each day my daily bread. God, forgive me for the unkind words I used with a sister just this morning. Lord, please lead me this very hour so that I walk with you in faithfulness. Praying this way is how we hold on to God, how we press on with God, how we wait for God. It’s how we.do.not.let.go.
But very few of us wake up in the morning as hungry for God as we are for corn flakes or eggs and sausage.
Peace,
Allan
Salvation is a process. Slow and painful, mysterious, with many ups and downs, and largely hidden from view. By the grace of God and the power of his Spirit, we are becoming more and more like Christ. And it’s difficult.
I was reminded during some prayer time this morning of a passage in C. S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity that addresses the topic of sanctification from Jesus’ point of view:
“The moment you put yourself in my hands, that is what you are in for. Nothing less, or other, than that. You have free will, and if you choose, you can push me away. But if you do not push me away, understand that I am going to see this job through. Whatever suffering it may cost you in your earthly life, whatever inconceivable purification it may cost you after death, and whatever it costs me, I will never rest, nor let you rest, until you are literally perfect — until my Father can say without reservation that he is well pleased with you, as he said he was well pleased with me. This I can do and will do. But I will not do anything less.”
Our Lord has promised to bring that thing he has started in me to completion. It’s not happening as quickly as I had hoped. Sometimes it’s not as much fun as I imagined. And there are times I honestly don’t feel like it’s happening at all. But I trust him. I trust him.
And you can, too.
Peace,
Allan
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