Suppose one of you has a friend
to whom he goes at midnight and says,
'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread,
for a friend of mine has arrived at my house from a journey
and I have nothing to offer him,'
We might be tempted to simply wait until morning, to not impose on the one who could grant our request. But it is clear that this individual sensed an urgency in the need to provide hospitality for his own visiting friend. He must he felt the need to give the other sustenance, even though it seemed too late to acquire it. Markets were closed and doors were locked. But he seemed to sense that his visitor could not himself have the rest he desired without first having his hunger sated. Maybe he had come from a great distance and had not been able to eat much along the way. That describes the spiritual condition of many in the world. He probably didn't originally plan to arrive in such need at so late an hour. It was good, then, to come into the house of a friend who wouldn't wait to try to help him. If the only way to ensure that his friend got the rest he needed was to briefly bother the sleep of others he was willing to do it.
'Do not bother me; the door has already been locked
and my children and I are already in bed.
I cannot get up to give you anything.'
There was the impression that it was in fact too late, that it was not going to be possible to provide an appropriate welcome to a visiting friend, or the desired comfort of a weary traveler. This idea, that it is too late, is one reason we might be tempted to give up on prayer. But this story seems to enjoin, along with persistence, the idea that what we perceive to be too late might not really be so if we keep after it. In the parable of the wise and foolish versions it seemed that a shut door was the end of the matter (see Matthew 25:11-12). Yet we should never judge this to be the case ourselves. As long as we are able we should "[a]sk and keep on asking and it will be given to you; seek and keep on seeking and you will find; knock and keep on knocking and the door will be opened to you" (see Matthew 7:7, AMP).
We tend to give up early when we forget what prayer is and with whom it is that are speaking when we pray. This is the reason that the prayer Jesus taught his disciples began with acknowledging God as their Father. Without this perspective it might be easy to forget that the Lord is for us, not against us, working all things for our good and not for ill. We might, in the cynicism entrained in us by life in the world, grow ready to expect snakes and scorpions in response to our requests. We might come to think that the testing of God is really meant to reveal us as failures whereas, in truth, "the testing of your faith produces steadfastness" (see James 1:3).
If God would be content to give us merely that which we ourselves thought we wanted he probably could do so more directly. But because he wants more for us than we desire for ourselves he must test our willingness to persist so that our desire can be widened to receive what he himself wants to give.
how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit
to those who ask him?
For us today, still within the world of time, and not yet arrived at the eternal day of heaven, it is not too late to come to God, urgently and insistently, until we find ourselves finally opened and unlocked to the blessings he desires to shower on us, the sun of justice with its healing rays.
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