“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead?” (Luke 11:11)

In Luke 11: 5-8 we find a neighbor (sometimes thought to represent God) only gets out of bed to help the friend because of the friend’s annoying persistence. If you read the story in Luke that way, then the parable would suggest that God will only give us what we need only if we badger Him. And if we don’t pray hard enough, maybe God won’t help us at all.

But to be honest, this is actually misunderstanding the parable told here in Luke. The real point is that if neighbors might help us for selfish reasons, how much more will our unselfish Father give to us? We can therefore ask confidently, knowing that God is greater than any flawed human being. He isn’t the neighbor in the parable, but the opposite of the neighbor.

Daily Questions

1. If the neighbor in the parable represents God, what does it suggest God is like?
2. If verses 11-13 clarify the parable, whet then is God like?

Daily Thoughts

Father, today we bring You our needs of others, confident that You’ll hear and answer, and grateful that it’s Your goodness and not our words that count.

Luke 11: 5-13

Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.”

“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”

“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

Bonus Information

Some believers in Christ seem to struggle with the apparent promises of Luke 11: 9-10. It seems that Jesus is offering a blank check that we present to God in prayer, assuming He must grant our requests. Christ’s words, however, may be a hyperbole, an extreme exaggeration to prove a point. Jesus clarifies the point He’s making when He describes the heart of His Father. The heavenly Father loves us deeply and desires the very best for us, which must be defined by Him and not by us. This means that when we go to God in prayer, we can be assured His responses will always be trustworthy. Sometimes, however, we must understand that, His answer to our prayers might be “No.” and for reasons that are beyond our human ability to understand.