A FRIEND AT MIDNIGHT
Greetings in the name of Jesus:
The parable from Luke 11:1-13 is really about our communication with God, and our on going relationship with Jesus Christ who is our advocate. In this parable a friend who a man has known probably a long time has guests show up at his door. It is late and he has now where to go to buy food, and as a last resort he comes to his friends house and wants to borrow some food for those who are his guests.
This man has gone to bed and is in bed with his family. Now that means something different back then than it does now because in those days everyone slept together in one large bed...no one had separate bedrooms and hot and cold running water. Going to the bathroom even meant disturbing the whole family, and to interrupt a family after their bed time meant chaos. How good of a friend would you have to be to someone to make such a request? You would have to be in great need to even make such a request, and the person you go to for such a favor would have to be close to you indeed.
That request could only be granted if someone had a relationship with you...and even then it would depend on how close that relationship was with you. Jesus knew well the customs of the times and what it would take to get someone who had gone through all of the rituals of bed time with their family to be disrupted right when they got settled down for the night. We find ourselves in the position of the neighbor who is in need of borrowing from God, and depends on the kindness of His heart...true, but also on the relationship that we have with Him. This parable also deals with prayer and its power to change things that are out of our control. The neighbor was persistent in knocking on the door even though the man had said "go away...I am in bed with my family". That means two things to me 1. that he was in desperate need of help, and 2. that he felt this was the only; or perhaps most reliable place he could go to get resources at that hour.
Desperation is many times the one things that will drive us to seek after God. The fact that we come to realize that we cannot operate on our own without the help of others is a huge lesson to learn. Many times it takes a traumatic experience in our lives before we can get a sense of how much we need God. It is in those dark and scary times that we become so desperate as to let go of our right to control long enough to choose in the promises that we know that God has made to us. Depending on the depth of our desperation we will genuinely seek after God, and that is the key to Him answering our plea for help. What does it take to make God real in your life? Can you honestly say that everyday you make the kind of contact with God that would cause Him to call you a friend? Do you make enough of a contact that He would consider you to be family? These are questions that must be answered before you can have the confidence to approach God in the midnight hour with a request out of desperation. You can begin that kind of relationship just by accepting the fact that God is real, and that His word is true. May you richly bless God through your life in Him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
The parable from Luke 11:1-13 is really about our communication with God, and our on going relationship with Jesus Christ who is our advocate. In this parable a friend who a man has known probably a long time has guests show up at his door. It is late and he has now where to go to buy food, and as a last resort he comes to his friends house and wants to borrow some food for those who are his guests.
This man has gone to bed and is in bed with his family. Now that means something different back then than it does now because in those days everyone slept together in one large bed...no one had separate bedrooms and hot and cold running water. Going to the bathroom even meant disturbing the whole family, and to interrupt a family after their bed time meant chaos. How good of a friend would you have to be to someone to make such a request? You would have to be in great need to even make such a request, and the person you go to for such a favor would have to be close to you indeed.
That request could only be granted if someone had a relationship with you...and even then it would depend on how close that relationship was with you. Jesus knew well the customs of the times and what it would take to get someone who had gone through all of the rituals of bed time with their family to be disrupted right when they got settled down for the night. We find ourselves in the position of the neighbor who is in need of borrowing from God, and depends on the kindness of His heart...true, but also on the relationship that we have with Him. This parable also deals with prayer and its power to change things that are out of our control. The neighbor was persistent in knocking on the door even though the man had said "go away...I am in bed with my family". That means two things to me 1. that he was in desperate need of help, and 2. that he felt this was the only; or perhaps most reliable place he could go to get resources at that hour.
Desperation is many times the one things that will drive us to seek after God. The fact that we come to realize that we cannot operate on our own without the help of others is a huge lesson to learn. Many times it takes a traumatic experience in our lives before we can get a sense of how much we need God. It is in those dark and scary times that we become so desperate as to let go of our right to control long enough to choose in the promises that we know that God has made to us. Depending on the depth of our desperation we will genuinely seek after God, and that is the key to Him answering our plea for help. What does it take to make God real in your life? Can you honestly say that everyday you make the kind of contact with God that would cause Him to call you a friend? Do you make enough of a contact that He would consider you to be family? These are questions that must be answered before you can have the confidence to approach God in the midnight hour with a request out of desperation. You can begin that kind of relationship just by accepting the fact that God is real, and that His word is true. May you richly bless God through your life in Him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
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