Appointed Time: Lesson 35: Praying With Faith

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Lesson 35: Praying With Faith – Part 2 of 2

Brief 4-to-5 Minute Teaching Lesson
Why? and What is the Purpose? in My Life SERIES

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The continuation of lesson 35 of the Discipleship Making process, where in part one of this lesson we were left answering the question, “What is the difference between hope and faith?”

In summary of the last lesson, we found Jesus introducing the subject, to His disciples, of “Praying With Faith”, where we learned that if we ask God specifically for one thing, He won’t give us something other than what we asked for; and secondly, if we ask for something good He won’t give us that which is evil. It is here that we pick-up where we left off last, Jesus was pointing out “what to ask for more of” in our prayer to the Father, which will bring both truth and life to all men.

Read: Luke 11:9-13

In using the contrasting illustration Jesus points to the fact that a good thing to ask God for is more of “the Holy Spirit”, which He will deny to no one. The Holy Spirit brings both truth and life to all men. (Ephesians 3:14-21, Colossians 1:9-12, Ephesians 5:18-20).

Just think! All that a Christian has to do to receive more of the Holy Spirit is to ask and believe that he has received it.

Since Jesus finishes His discourse with the thought that a truly good gift to ask God for is more of the Holy Spirit, it gives us pause to rethink the “Parable of the Sleeping Friend”. Notice that the man asked his sleeping friend for three loaves of bread. Why three loaves for just one journeying friend? In light of what Jesus said we could think about this in a different way. Since man is a three-part being the three loaves were needed to meet all the needs of the journeying friend: one each for his spirit, soul and body. The three loaves, themselves are representative of God’s gifts through the Holy Spirit to meet those needs: the word of God, the love of God and the power of God.

Also notice that the man came to the sleeping friend’s house at midnight. Why didn’t he wait until the morning? It shows that the Holy Spirit can meet a man’s needs at any time. And why didn’t the man have anything to give his journeying friend in the first place? This indicates that we by ourselves aren’t always able to meet the needs of others but that we do have instant access to the One who can. All we have to do is ask, seek and knock.

There is one final spiritual application that can be drawn from the “Parable of the Sleeping Friend”, and that is the sequence: seek, knock and ask. The man sought his friend first: “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you,” Matthew 6:33. Then the man knocked on his door to rouse him: “Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name,” Psalm 100:4. And finally he asked for what he wanted: “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you,” John 15:16.

The point of the lesson is to pray with faith.

With that, allow me to leave you with this question to consider, along with a little homework assignment until my next posting:

In what ways can a Christian be guilty of hypocrisy?

. . . and the homework assignment . . .

Work through the following prayer exercise. (For example)