Imagine a situation where you’re entirely out of food at home. That scenario is tough for me to conjure up because usually, my pantry topples over with towers of unnecessary snacks. But maybe you’ve come back from a long vacation and you had cleaned out the kitchen before you left. Of course, you’re not in a dire situation. In fact, you had dug into KFC at the airport. You’re doing okay but the bare kitchen cupboards look somewhat bizarre.

It’s almost midnight and your phone rings. It’s your best friend from high school. Why is she calling you now?

Turns out she has had a fight with her husband and she is coming over. She is distraught. And she mentions that she hasn’t eaten all day. “Hey, sorry to be a bother. But I need someone to talk to,” she says between sniffles. “And something to eat,” she adds.

Your empty pantry becomes worrisome because you want to be there your friend. And right now ‘being there’ looks like listening to her and giving her something to eat. The stores are closed. Food delivery apps are done for the night.

You walk over to the neighbor’s apartment. You kind of wince, but there’s no choice. You need a loaf of bread and maybe some butter. Your friend will be there soon.

Trriiiing.

You hear the doorbell echo through the still house. The lights don’t flicker on.

You take a deep breath.

Trriiiing. Trriiiing.

A shaft of light. Shuffling feet.

Your neighbor opens the door, just a crack.

You smile sheepishly. “Hi there. Do you happen to have a loaf of bread?”

A few minutes later, your friend is at your kitchen table. She is wolfing down a sandwich, talking about her situation between bites.

Tomorrow, at a saner time, you’ll go back to the neighbor, explain what happened, and thank him profusely.

While this is an imaginary situation, there are times in life when we are completely out of resources. We are at zero physically, emotionally, and even spiritually. But we find ourselves hesitant to approach God because the request seems too big, too annoying, too unwieldy, too burdensome, and too frequent for even Him.

But God says to you. “Hey, go ahead and ring my doorbell. Even if it’s midnight. I’ll answer.”

In Luke 11, Jesus tells His disciples the story of a man who approaches his neighbor for bread: “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.

Jesus uses this story to tell us to persist in prayer. To ask. To seek. To knock. In fact, I was surprised to see that Scripture uses the words, “shameless audacity” to perhaps encourage those of us who may be timid in our prayers.

We don’t have to tiptoe around God. Unlike the not-so-friendly neighbor, He is a God who neither slumbers nor sleeps.

God loves it when we approach His throne of grace. He wants us to come with boldness. He longs to hear our heart’s requests.

And He reminds us: For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. (Luke 11: 10)

The world has conditioned us to be cautious in asking for help. And we sometimes carry that cautiousness into our relationship with God. We act as if we don’t want to wake Him up or ask for something inconvenient or impossible. We cushion our prayers with several layers of “if it’s Your will” type statements. We hedge our prayers with “correct” words instead of pouring out hearts, unfiltered and unfettered.

But today He reminds us that He is our Abba Father. He delights in giving His children what we need.

So come before Him. Not with bashfulness and neither with brashness but with boldness. Make that shamelessly audacious request. Your Heavenly Father knows all you need and will answer according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

 

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