By T. M. Anderson
When our Lord uttered these immortal words He gave to every
child of God the inalienable right to pray. He impressed His disciples with this
fact by asking them some pertinent questions: "If a son shall ask bread of any
of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he
for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a
scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your
children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them
that ask him?"—v. 11-13.
If the father loves his son it would be utterly inconsistent
with his nature to give his child a stone, or a snake, or a stinging scorpion
instead of bread. The father’s answer to his son’s request will be granted
according to the measure of his love for his child. It is the most natural thing
in all the world for a father to listen to the requests of his family. When
Jesus said, "... Any of you that is a father ," he compares a man’s love for his
children to God’s love for His children. He asks us to look up from our earthly
fathers, and calculate how much more the heavenly Father will be moved to give
good gifts to His children. Jesus is teaching us to understand that as much as
God’s goodness exceeds the goodness of mortal man, so much greater is our
assurance that He will grant our childlike petitions.
Every child of God from the youngest to the oldest has a right
to ask the Father for the bread of life. Every child, irrespective of age, sex,
or race, can come boldly to the throne of grace, and find grace to help in time
of need. There are no underprivileged children in God’s family. The crippled,
the weak, and the sick children have a right to ask the heavenly Father for the
living bread from heaven.
The Saviour would have us perceive the imperishable truth that,
"... Every one that asketh receiveth ..." It is utterly unthinkable that our
loving Father would ignore our earnest petitions. He will not remain silent and
unmoved when His own children are weeping before Him in earnest
petitions.
A missionary was telling about the sufferings endured while a
prisoner during the war. He said that the crying of his starving family caused
him to suffer more than all the cruel and barbarous treatment received at the
hands of the savage and inhuman guards. When we understand how this godly man
was moved by the constant crying of his famishing family, we can comprehend how
our heavenly Father can be moved to answer the unceasing prayers of His family.
It was not possible for the faithful missionary to grant the urgent requests of
his children, but it is possible for our heavenly Father to grant the requests
of His children.
Jesus teaches us that prayer has a human side and a divine side.
The human side is the asking, and the divine side is the giving. The two halves
which make up the whole of prayer are the asking and the receiving. Our asking
and the Fathers’ answering belong to each other. Our requests on earth and the
Father’s answer in heaven are meant for each other. If we believe that the
Father has made an ample provision for the needs of His children, then we must
also believe that He will surely give them all good gifts according to the
promise.
Jesus teaches us to come to Him day by day to receive the bread
of life to sustain us in this world. He wills day by day to do for us what we
ask in simple faith.
When the Master said, "... Every one that asketh receiveth ...,"
He stressed the fact that we are not to rest without an answer to our petitions.
He is saying that it is the Father’s will, and the rule of His house to grant
the requests of His believing children.
When no answer is received we are often disposed to say that it
is not the will of God to give us the answer. We will find it much easier to
yield to our own false reasoning about the answer to prayer than it is to shake
off our lethargy and seek God until the answer is obtained. There are so many
persons who rest content without the distinct experience of answered prayer.
This distressing fact reveals the serious deterioration of Christian life in
these last days. These unhappy souls pray daily, they ask many things, and
devoutly hope that some of their prayers will be answered. They apparently do
not know that it is the norm of spiritual life to receive definite answers to
prayer. They obviously do not know that the heavenly Father wills day by day to
do for us what we ask in faith.
We must take the words of Jesus just as they were spoken. We
must not allow human reasoning to weaken the force of His teachings about our
asking and receiving. We owe it to ourselves to take sufficient time while
praying, to listen to His voice, and believe the truth that "Every one that
asketh receiveth."
We should not make our many failures of the past the measure of
our faith for the present. We must hold fast the assuring fact that the
effectual fervent prayer of God’s obedient child availeth much.
The son’s request for bread is based on his relationship to the
father. It is by virtue of this relationship that the son has the inalienable
right to expect his father to answer his requests. When Jesus speaks of the son
asking bread of his father, He is speaking of an obedient son. The son that
finds no pleasure in obedience to his father and presumes that he can still ask
and receive what he desires will certainly be disappointed. A son who loves and
honors his father will find it is the father’s good pleasure to answer his daily
requests.
Consistent living on the part of God’s people is the condition
for obtaining the answer to prayer. God’s precepts requiring obedience in our
living, and His promises relating to our praying are inseparable.
We can certainly count on God’s fulfilling His promise to answer
prayer when we obey His sovereign will in all things. We should take time to
meditate on the tenderness and love the heavenly Father has for His obedient
children.
Much of our difficulty in praying is removed when we think on
the happy relationship existing between an obedient child and a loving heavenly
Father. When He sees His child with sincere purpose and steady will seeking
diligently in everything to be and live as a child, then our prayers will
prevail with Him as the prayer of an obedient child.
Jesus regarding the inherent principles of effectual praying. If
God’s
people will take sufficient time to meditate on the essentials
of
prevailing prayer, they will be rewarded richly for the hours
spent in
the school of Christ. When once we grasp the gracious truth
contained
in the words of Jesus, and take a firm hold on the promises
relating
to prayer, we will then realize the meaning of His words, "...
Every
one that asketh receiveth
We firmly believe that the Master stated the truth when He said,
"... Every one that asketh receiveth ..." Nevertheless we are confronted
frequently with the startling and disconcerting fact that we do not always
receive definite answer to our prayers. We find it exceedingly difficult to
reconcile these disturbing facts with the explicit statement of Jesus regarding
the answer to our prayers.
When we consider the Master’s teachings about prayer, we must
not strive to make them conform to our wishful thinking regarding the answer to
our prayers. It is possible for us to set our heart on obtaining something we
greatly desire for our own personal gratification, and then express our keen
disappointment because the request was not granted.
The answer to our perplexing questions about prayer will be
found when we study the Master’s words about the son asking for bread. We are
fully aware that the son cannot live without bread; he must have it or perish.
However, there are many things the son may ask which are not as important to
life as food. He may ask his father for money, or fine clothing, or toys. The
father may consider it wise to give his son these good gifts; and again he might
deem it best for the son’s own good to withhold these things requested; but when
the child asks for food it is a different matter of life, because food is a
necessity.
There are many good gifts which our heavenly Father may deem it
wise to bestow upon us, such as good health, prosperity, and financial security.
If He wills to withhold these things we must submit to His sovereign will
without complaint. Perfect health, prosperity, and earthly goods are not
essential to life in this world. Our relationship to God does not depend on
these creature comforts. These things cannot impart to us the moral strength we
need to cope with the trials incident to life in this evil world. It requires
the "Bread of life" to give the spiritual strength to sustain us in these last
days. We are fully assured that our Father will give us the living bread from
heaven to keep us strong in faith, undaunted in courage, and invincible in
hope.
The grand climax of our Lord’s discourse on prayer was reached
when He disclosed the Father’s promise to give the Holy Spirit to His praying
children. He would have us understand that our urgent requests for the bread
from heaven are answered by the Father’s gift of the Spirit.
He is teaching us that the Spirit is given to the children of
God for the express purpose of sustaining and satisfying life. Our incessant
demands for spiritual food are supplied by the indwelling Spirit. Our daily
prayer should be, "Lord, evermore give us this bread." The answer from heaven
is, "... Every one that asketh receiveth ..."
