Our Father is Willing to Give the Bread of Life in Answer to Our Intercessory Prayer for Others
"…Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves; 6For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him? 7And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee. 8I say unto you, though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity [wearisome persistence] he will rise and give him as many as he needed." Luke 11:5-8
When will God hear the prayers of His people? Only when we see how important praying for others really is in our Father's eyes. See how our Lord Jesus illustrated this fact, He said, "Because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needed." This need that the man's friend, the traveler had, who had stopped by his house that night, was more important than the rest needed by the baker's entire family. The man's appeal for the bread was so persistent that he did not pay any attention to the complaint that his sleepy baker friend was saying.
I am thoroughly persuaded that a great spiritual arousing will happen in this sin filled world of ours only when we, the people of God, will deny ourselves of some sleep and seek God in prayer during the peaceful hours of the morning. It is my firm belief that the great Asbury revival of 1950 has set a pattern that we should follow so that we can have a great revival in this day and time. A few students stayed up all night and prayed for others, then in the early hours of the morning God showed His glory, and over 5000 people were affected across our nation and around the world. Even today we are still blessed by that great revival because God rose up a generation of people who are still preaching, teaching and praying from God's holy Word the Holy Bible.
Could it be possible that we are too lazy and uncaring to pray for other people? Or is it that there is no passion for souls? Maybe there is no genuine concern for the lost people? Could it be that we are too sleepy and have no desire to stay up with Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane's prevailing prayer? But could it be more likely that we are too comfortable in our physical luxuries and they are far more important than our intercessory praying for others?
I don't know, but perhaps our Lord will bring some exhausted traveler of this life to our door asking for our help through our intercessory prayers. If our Father is pleased to trust us with such a great responsibility to intercede for a lost soul, let us never fall short of feeding this famished soul. What a joy it is to see a person grow strong in our Lord because we obeyed and prayed earnestly for their salvation.
This wearisome persistent man made a remarkable confession when he told his friend, "...I have nothing to set before him." It is clear that Jesus does not want to bring attention to the man's awkward shortage. But rather He is showing us that our sufficiency is not of ourselves. Paul affirmed this point when he wrote.
"Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God." -- 2 Corinthians 3:5.
When it comes to our natural ability to help others spiritually; we all are sadly inadequate and in ourselves we have nothing to put before them. We will never have anything of any spiritual value to place before this starving world unless we make ourselves available to the rich resources of Christ through prayer.
It is not hard to picture that the man had a lazy-boy chair and of course a comfortable bed for his friend, the exhausted traveler. But what good is furniture; can it be a substitute for food? Can a warm welcome at the door, the furnishing of the house, and the entertaining conversation, satisfy the hunger of the human heart? No! It requires and can only be satisfied by the fresh bread of life, the Word of God, acquired from God, to save a famishing soul from death.
Jesus is encouraging us to make ourselves available to His resources when He stated, "...He will rise and give him as many as he needed." Remember, we have nothing of ourselves to give to save a lost and dieing soul. Who then will give us as much as we ask for in intercessory prayer? Our faithful Friend, Christ Jesus.
Jesus wants us to understand that our importunate [wearisome persistent] praying will conquer our discouragements and difficulties. He makes known this truth when He said, "...He from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee." He is not saying that our loving Father is reluctant to give us the requirements we need to help others. No! What our Master is teaching us is not to stop praying when we come across some conflicting forces in life. There are times when it seems that our earnest prayers have been unanswered. But keep in mind that our heavenly Father is willing, able and desires to give the bread of life in answer to our intercessory prayer for others.
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