Asking and Receiving.—Luke 10:38-42; 11:1-13

Notes

1. "Our Father." Although God is the great Creator, He is also our Father. "Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him." Ps. 103:13. "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. . . . And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ." Rom. 8:14-17. God is no respecter of persons, and has no special favorites among His children, for He loves us the same as He does Jesus. John 17:23. Therefore everything that Christ inherits, we shall share with Him. "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God." 1 John 3:1.

2. "Which art in heaven." That means that He can do whatever He wishes. "But our God is in the heavens; He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased." Ps. 115:3. "O Lord God of our fathers, art not Thou God in heaven? and rulest not Thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? and in Thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand Thee?" 2 Chron. 20:6. He who begins his prayer with the words, "Our Father who art in heaven," understanding and accepting all that they mean, already has the answer.

3. "Thy kingdom come." This is a petition for the appearing of Christ, for that is when the kingdom comes. 2 Tim. 4:1; Matt. 25:31; Luke 19:11, 12, 15. But since before the end comes the gospel of the kingdom must be preached in all the world, for a witness unto all nations (Matt. 24:14), the prayer for the coming of Christ and His kingdom is really a prayer for the Lord to send out laborers into the harvest; and that means, first of all, "Here am I; send me."

4. "Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth." The will of God is His law. Rom. 2:17, 18. The angels "do His commandments, hearkening unto the voice of His word." Ps. 103:20. Therefore, the prayer for God's will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, is a prayer for the time to come when all on earth will do His commandments, hearkening unto the voice of His word. And that will be only when those who will not do the will of God have been cut off from the earth. And so this prayer offered in sincerity is the complete surrender and submission of ourselves to God, that in all things He may work in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure.

5. "Give us day by day our daily bread." This is an acknowledgment that we are dependent on the Lord day by day for our bread. Not only so, but it is an expression of content that we are so dependent.

6. "And forgive us our sins." No Christian ever gets beyond the utterance of that prayer. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9. No person is ever so near to God, and so fully cleansed from sin, as when humbly acknowledging his own sinfulness to God; for only in confessing our own utter lack of righteousness can we be filled with the fullness of God's righteousness. "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." 1 John 1:8. Because in that case we charge God with lying, in that He says we are sinners. But when we acknowledge the truth of God's words in every particular, then we are agreed with Him; His will is ours, and therefore He must pronounce us righteous. But let it be remembered that God alone can truthfully declare one to be righteous. That must ever be left to Him. No man may say it of himself.

7. Do not read Luke 11:5-8 as though it were an illustration of how God receives the prayers of His people. It is a comparison by contrast. The ease-loving man grants the request of his friend only in order that he may avoid being further disturbed. But God gave Himself, His own life, for us, in Christ. He found joy in denying Himself for us. "For the joy that was set before Him [He] endured the cross." Heb. 12:2. As He gave His life for us, He lives only to save us. It is His good pleasure to give us the kingdom. Luke 12:32. "He delighteth in mercy." Micah 7:18. That is, not simply in pleasing His friends, but in blessing those who are enemies. The lesson to be learned, therefore, is that if a selfish man will arouse himself to grant a favor, how much more may we expect help from the Lord, who is listening to hear the first whisper of prayer.

8. This is emphasized by what follows. No one that "is a father" will ever disregard the cry of his children for food. Neither will he tantalize them, nor deceive them. The one chief thought of a man "that is a father" is that his children may be properly cared for. To this end he will toil even night and day. Now God is a Father, but He is as much better and more considerate a Father than any earthly father, as He is better and greater than man. Men are by nature selfish and evil; God is perfect in goodness. He is infinitely more willing and better able to help us than earthly parents are to care for their children. Therefore there is not the shadow of a doubt that He will give the Holy Spirit to us when we ask it, and that means the giving of all spiritual blessings. Let these truths not be received as a theory, but grasped as facts.