Connect360: Prayer Power

• Lesson 10 in the Connect360 unit “Kingdom Power: The Sermon on the Mount” focuses on Matthew 7:7-11.

Jesus’ parable of the friend asking for bread at midnight often is interpreted as a call to persistent prayer. In Luke 11:8, the sleeping friend agrees to give him bread, not because he is his friend, but because of his persistence, bothering him and awakening his family. He gets up and gives him whatever he wants just to get rid of him.

Is Jesus saying if we bother God with our continuous prayers, he reluctantly will answer? Of course not. This is a parable of contrast, rather than a parable of comparison. God is not like a grumpy friend who gets up and gives bread because he is annoyed or bothered. God is like a father who gives good gifts to his child.

God is eager to respond to our prayers. Jesus encouraged us to keep on asking, keep on seeking, and keep on knocking. The three imperatives: ask, seek and knock, are in the present tense indicating continuous action. Keep on asking and you will keep on receiving; keep seeking and you will continue to find; keep knocking and the door will continually be opened.

The Bible records stories from each generation where God’s people called out to him and he answered.

When the Israelites were slaves in Egypt, they begged God for freedom (Exodus 1–4), and God raised up Moses and delivered them. During the time when Eli was a judge in Israel, Hannah, the wife of Elkanah, was barren. She cried to God and asked for a child and God gave her a son. She named him Samuel saying, “Because I have asked him of the Lord” (1 Samuel 1:20).

When God told Gideon to lead his people against the powerful Midianites, Gideon asked for assurance, and God gave him a sign (Judges 6). Solomon was made king over Israel, and he asked God for wisdom and God said, “Behold, I have given you a wise and discerning heart, so that there has been no one like you before you, nor shall one like you arise after you” (1 Kings 3:12).

David called on God for forgiveness in Psalm 51. Elisha prayed for a double portion of Elijah’s spirit when Elijah was taken up into heaven (2 Kings 2:9). Peter was in prison, and the church prayed for him to be released, and God set him free (Acts 12). God wants us to ask. He has plans for us greater than we can imagine. Isaiah 55:6 says, “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near.”

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