Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Luke 11:9

And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

9. Ask, and it shall be given you ] Mat 7:7-11; Mat 21:22; Mar 11:24; Joh 16:23. Doubtless these teachings were repeated more than once to different listeners. God’s unwillingness to grant is never more than in semblance, and for our good (Mat 15:28 ; Gen 32:28).

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

See this explained in the notes at Mat 7:7-11.

Luk 11:12

A scorpion See the notes at Luk 10:19. Dr. Thomson (The Land and the Book, vol. i. p. 379) says: There is no imaginable likeness between an egg and the ordinary black scorpion of this country, neither in color nor size, nor, when the tail is extended, in shape; but old writers speak of a white scorpion, and such a one, with the tail folded up, as in specimens of fossil trilobites, would not look unlike a small egg. Perhaps the contrast, however, refers only to the different properties of the egg and the scorpion, which is sufficiently emphatic.

Pliny (N. H., xi. 25) says that in Judea the scorpions are about the size of an egg, and not unlike one in shape.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Luk 11:9-10

Ask, and it shall be given you

The law of prayer

This familiar text is usually quoted, and rightly so, as being one of the most precious promises and encouragements to prayer which the Bible contains; but if you look at the text, it is far more than a promise encouraging prayer.

It is a declaration of the condition of our receiving any good gift from God. For reasons which may not be fully intelligible to us, God has limited His mercy. There is the treasure-house full of grace. You go up to it; the doors are locked. You must knock, or they will not be opened. There is the river of life open to all, but you may die from thirst on its banks unless you kneel. Ask, says Christ, then you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. This is really the final mystery of prayer. Why do we need to pray at all? Can love that waits to be asked be perfect love? And the mystery is deepened when you remember the very people that need Gods grace most are those that never ask for it–wicked people, indifferent people, immoral people, unbelieving people, Godless people. They are the people that need the grace, and they will not ask for it. And yet God says, No grace unless it be sought. Ye have not–why? Not because you do not need it. Ye have not, because ye ask not. That, I repeat, is the great mystery of prayer.

I. I do not pretend to be able to offer you any full explanation of the mystery, but there are three CONSIDERATIONS WHICH HELP TO ALLEVIATE THE DIFFICULTY A LITTLE.

1. First of all, it is clear that prayer recognizes the sovereign freedom of the human will. Oh! it is an awful thing, that human freedom of ours! Why, my brethren, God lifts His little finger, and the stoutest heart would open its door. But if God entered a heart against its will, He would not enter a heart. He would enter a ruin. And to make prayer a condition of Gods gift recognizes even in mans deepest sin the noble freedom of the human will.

2. Then, again, prayer at least implies some sympathy of the will of him who prays with God. You know that there are cables beneath the Atlantic which connect this country with America. Now and then you read in the papers that interruption has taken place in the cable. No messages pass, and the cause of the interruption is some defect in the conveying power in the wire; some fault, as the electricians call it, in the cable itself. Well, now, just so there may be moral faults in the will which may make it impossible for God to give unless we are in sympathy with Him; and to make prayer, therefore, the condition of Gods gift is to imply inward sympathy of will with God.

3. And then, last of all, you cannot doubt–and I shall speak of that in a moment more fully–that whether we can understand the mystery of prayer or not, there is something in prayer, altogether apart from the answers which God gives to it, which justifies prayer. A great thinker once said: I have conquered all my doubts, not with my books, but on my knees. On my knees: ah, yes! And I have sometimes thought that if those golden gates of heaven were never opened for any answer to prayer to pass through, prayer would be enough by itself. There is something in the reflex attitude and influence and effect of prayer which makes prayer in itself a blessing. Ask, and the very asking is a grace. Seek, and before the answer comes you have found something worth finding. Knock, and that very knock is a blessing. But whether we can understand it or not, this is the law: I could almost put the law of prayer into a single sentence to which there is no exception–much prayer, much blessing; little prayer, little blessing; no prayer, no blessing.

II. Now, let me turn to the brighter side of this text, and ask you to consider for a few moments some of the BLESSINGS WHICH COME TO THOSE WHO OBEY THIS GREAT LAW OF THE KINGDOM. Let me encourage you to pray by these blessings.

1. First of all, I cannot find a word, though I have tried hard, to exactly express what I mean when I say that the first blessing of prayer is this: the unconscious cheek it imposes on the life. Any of you who spend half an hour every morning with God will know what I mean. You weave about your life a network of self-restraint never seen, most potent, most real, most felt when most needed. St. Paul had a word, a favourite word; and St. Paul was a very passionate man, a fiery man; but there was a very favourite word with him; it is translated most inadequately in our version, moderation. The Greek word menus high mastery of self; and that is what prayer gives a man.

2. The other day I was reading an article by one of our scientific men who has given up all belief in the supernatural in any answers to prayer, and yet he said these words: If any one abandons prayer, he abandons one of the highest forces which mould and benefit human character. I do not wonder at it. You could not go into the presence of God, if God never answered prayer, without receiving a blessing. When Moses was on the Mount, we read that he came down from it, and his face shone, though he wist it not.

There are shining faces in the streets of London to-day, if you have eyes to see them–men, women, not beautiful by nature, but beautiful by what is more than nature, beautiful with Gods own beauty. You look at them, and you think of the words in Tennysons In Memoriam:

Her eyes were hymns of silent prayer.

You look at them, and you think of those better words,

They saw His face as it had been the face of an angel.

3. And yet the reflex blessing of prayer is as nothing, absolutely nothing, compared with its chief blessing–and with that I wish to close–that prayer has power with God. I do not shrink from the words. The prophet Hosea, describing that night of wrestling of Jacob with God, uses these words–you will find them in the Revised Version–In his manhood he had power with God. Do you know what that power was? It was the power of a lame man wrestling in prayer–I will not let Thee go until Thou bless me. It was the power that every soul in prayer has with God to-day. (G. S. Barrett, B. A.)

Prayer certified of success

Our Saviour knew right well that many difficulties would arise in connection with prayer which might tend to stagger His disciples, and therefore He has balanced every opposition by an overwhelming assurance.

I. OUR SAVIOUR GIVES TO US THE WEIGHT OF HIS OWN AUTHORITY. I say unto you.

1. No laws of nature can prevent the fulfilment of the Lords own word.

2. No Divine decrees can prevent the efficacy of prayer.

3. Notwithstanding Gods majesty and thy weakness and sinfulness, thy prayer shall move the arm that moves the world.

II. OUR LORD PRESENTS US WITH A PROMISE.

1. Note that the promise is given to several varieties of prayer.

2. Observe that these varieties of prayer are put on an ascending scale. Ask–the statement of our wants. Seek signifies that we marshall our arguments. Knock–importunity.

3. These three methods of prayer exercise a variety of our graces. Faith asks, hope seeks, love knocks.

4. These three modes of prayer suit us in different stages of distress. There am I, a poor mendicant at mercys door, I ask, and I shall receive. I lose my way, so that I cannot find Him of whom I once asked so successfully; well, then, I may seek with the certainty that I shall find. And if I am in the last stage of all, not merely poor and bewildered, but so defiled as to feel shut out from God like a leper shut out of the camp, then I may knock and the door will open to me.

5. Each one of these different descriptions of prayer is exceedingly simple.

III. JESUS TESTIFIES TO THE FACT THAT PRAYER IS HEARD. (C. H.Spurgeon.)

It is sense of want that makes us to seek out

It was want that caused Abraham to go down into Egypt (Gen 12:10), Isaac into Gerar Gen 26:1), Jacob to send his sons into Egypt (Gen 42:2). For first, nature is proud, and loath to be beholding to any till needs must: every man naturally loves in the first place to be beholding to himself in any extremity; and if his own wit, or his own purse, or his own projects, or endeavours will help him, he will seek no further; he had rather pay than pray. Then again; life is dear, and nature is forcible to seek out for the preservation of itself, when it is necessitated and put to it, it will seek out before it suffer too much, and break through stone walls rather then famish. From hence we may conclude that there is some good comes unto us by want, some profit we may have by it. It teacheth us the worth of things most truly, and maketh us value the mercy as we should (at least far better than otherwise we would). It is the sharp winter that makes the spring to be sweet and pleasant; and the night s darkness that makes the light of the sun to be desirable: so sickness makes health more grateful; pain, pleasure more delightful; want, plenty more comfortable; and it makes exceedingly for the preservation of love and unity amongst neighbours, and towards the maintenance of civil society and commerce amongst Christians. And this is one reason why it hath pleased the manifold wisdom of God to enrich several countries with several commodities; divers gifts to several persons, not all to any one, that our wants may be supplied by their fulness, and one be beholding to another for a supply of his necessity, which otherwise would not be. Laish was a secure and careless people, and the reason is rendered to be this, they had no want Jdg 18:10). A fulness causeth us to contemn and scorn those whom in our wants we are glad to make use of. So we read (Jdg 11:6). (N. Rogers.)

True prayer must be accompanied with a sense of the want of those things we crave

When we come to God by prayer, a sense of those things we ask must be brought with us. This is required (Jam 1:5). If any man lack wisdom, i.e., if any be sensible of the lack of it and desire it. In the sense of want have Gods servants come before Him continually. So Jehosophat, We know not what to do (2Ch 20:12). So Hannah (1Sa 1:6-15). So David (Psa 60:11). So the Prodigal (Luk 15:17). So all the godly from time to time. This is that that puts us in a praying condition; for first, no man will ask that which he supposeth he hath no need of (Mat 9:12); the proud Pharisee begged nothing, though he pretended thankfulness. Secondly, this is that that humbles us, and causeth us to be lowly in our own eyes; it is the having of some good that puffeth up, not the want of it. Thirdly, without a sense of the want of what we ask, we shall never earnestly desire it, nor use the means for the obtaining of it. It is want that makes us to seek out, as it did that man we heard of before, who went to his friend at midnight. Fourthly, should we have what we crave, yet without sense of want of the mercy, we should never prize it. Now there is a three-fold want that must be taken special notice of when we come to God by prayer. First of the blessing itself which we desire to have, be it outward or inward, corporal or spiritual, temporal or eternal; of what kind soever it be, we must be sensible, and have a feeling of it, and value it accordingly. A second want that we must take notice of is our own disability to help ourselves, and the disability of any other creature in heaven or earth to supply our wants. Thirdly, of our own unworthiness to obtain that we crave, we must be sensible. (N. Rogers.)

The efficacy of importunate prayer

I. WHAT IS IMPORTUNATE PRAYER?

1. It is restless.

2. Will not take either the privative nay of silence, or the positive nay of denial.

3. Nor will it take a contumelious repulse.

4. Impudent in a holy manner. I remember a story of a poor woman in Essex condemned to die: she falls to crying and screeching, as if she meant to pierce the heavens; the judge and those on the bench bid her hold her peace. O my Lord, said she, it is for my life I beg, I beseech you; it is for my life. So when a soul comes before God, and begs for mercy, he must consider that it is for his life.

II. WHY WE MUST SEEK IMPORTUNATELY.

1. God loves to be sought unto.

2. We should not be lukewarm in seeking mercy. It was a custom among the Romans, when any was condemned to die, if he looked for mercy, he was to bring father and mother, and all his kinsmen and acquaintance, and they should all come with tears in their faces, and with tattered garments, and kneel down and beg before the judge, and cry mightily; and then they thought justice was honoured. Thus they honoured justice in man, for a man condemned to die; and so the Lord loves His mercy should be honoured, &c., and therefore He will have prayer to be importunate, that it may appear by groans how highly we esteem of grace; our souls must pant and gasp after grace, the breath of the Lord being the soul of our souls, our hearts will die without it. This is to the honour of mercy, therefore the Lord will have us importunate.

3. As importunity must be in regard of Gods mercy, so it must he in regard of ourselves, else we cannot tell how to esteem it. Soon come, soon gone; lightly gotten, suddenly forgotten; I have it, come let us be jovial and spend it, when this is gone, I know where to have more; but if he had wrought for it, and also must work for more, if he mean to have more, he would better esteem it. What then is the reason, may some man say, why so few are importunate in prayer? I answer–

1. Because men count prayer a penance.

2. Men content themselves with formality.

3. Because they are gentlemen-beggars. Their hearts are full of pride.

4. Because they have wrong conceits of prayer.

(1) They have high conceits of their own prayers; they cannot pray in a morning, between the pillow and the blankets, half asleep and half awake, but they think that they have done God good service; so that He cannot afford to damn them. Lord, how do I abuse the throne of grace? how do I abuse Thy sabbaths, Thy house, Thy name, and all the holy ordinances which I go about? A man that is importunate in prayer is ashamed; but when they think highly of their prayers, they are insolent, their prayers are damned, and they too.

(2) As men have high conceits of their prayers, so they have mean conceits of their sins, they think not their sins so bad as they are.

(3) As men have mean thoughts of their sins, so they have base thoughts of God. I cannot think God will be so strict. They think God will pardon them, and therefore because of this, men are not importunate with God.

(4) Because they have wrong conceits of importunity. If a man knock once or twice, or thrice, and none answer, presently he will be gone; this is for want of manners; thou wilt knock seven times, if thou be importunate with them: they within may say, hold thy peace, begone, etc., but thou wilt not so be answered. Beloved, men are close-handed, they are loath to give; and they are close-hearted too, they are loath to take the pains to ask of God; they are loath others should be importunate with them, and therefore they are loath to be importunate with God. (W. Fenner, B. D.)

Importunate prayer

I. SIGNS OF IMPORTUNATE PRAYER.

1. The prayer of a godly heart.

2. The prayer of a pure conscience.

3. A prayer full of strong arguments.

4. A stout prayer.

5. A wakeful prayer.

6. A prayer that will not be quiet till it get assurance that God has heard it.

II. PRAYERS THAT ARE NOT IMPORTUATE.

1. A lazy prayer. That man that ploughs his field, and digs his vineyard, that man prays for a good harvest; if a man pray to God never so much, yet if he do not use the means, he cannot obtain the thing he prays for. Even so it is with grace; a man may pray for all the graces of Gods Spirit, and yet never get any, unless he labour for them in the use of the means. God cannot abide lazy beggars, that cannot abide to follow their calling, but if they can get anything by begging they will never set themselves to work. So, many there be, that if they can get pardon of sin for begging, then they will have it; but let such know that the Lord will not give it for such lazy kind of praying. God gives not men repentance, faith, &c by miracles, but by means. Thou must then use the means, and keep watch and ward over thine own soul, that so thou mayest get the grace thou prayest for.

2. A prayer that is not a full prayer, never speeds with God; but an importunate prayer is a full prayer, it is a pouring out of the heart, yea of the whole heart (Psa 62:8).

3. Snatch-prayer is no importunate prayer; when men pray by snatches, because of sluggishness, or because their hearts are eager about other business.

4. Silent prayers are never importunate. Many go to God, and tell God they must needs have mercy, and fain they would have mercy, and yet they are silent in confessing the sin they should. Hast thou been a drunkard, and dost thou think that the Lord will for give thee for crying, Lord, forgive me, etc. No, no, thou must insist on it, and say, Against Thy word I have been a drunkard, my conscience told me so, but I would not hear; I have felt the motions of Thy Holy Spirit stirring against me, and I regarded not; now if Thou shouldst turn me into hell, I were well requited; so many sermons have I neglected; I have wronged others in this kind, and I have been the cause why many are now in hell if they repented not. I have prayed for mercy, yet with the dog to his vomit have I returned, and therefore for all my prayers Thou mayest cast me into hell for ever; and now I have prayed, yet it is a hundred to one but I shall run into my old sin again; yet as I expect forgiveness, so I desire to make a covenant to give over all my sinful courses, and I am justly damned if I go to them again. Such a kind of prayer the Lord loves.

5. Seldom prayer is no importunate prayer; when the soul contents itself with seldom coming before the throne of grace; an importunate soul is ever frequenting the way of mercy, and the gate of Christ; he is often at the threshold before God, in all prayer and humiliation.

6. Lukewarm-prayer is not an importunate prayer; when a man prays, but is not fervent, when a man labours not to wind up his soul to God in prayer.

7. Bye-thoughts in prayer keep prayer from being importunate; as when a man prays and lets his heart go a wool-gathering. I remember a story of an unworthy orator, who being to make an acclamation, O earth! O heaven! when he said O heaven, he looked down to the earth; and when he said O earth, he looked up to heaven. So, many when they pray to God in heaven, their thoughts are on the earth: these prayers can never be importunate. When a man prays, the Lord looks that his heart should be fixed on his prayer; for our hearts will leak, and the best child of God, do what he can, shall have bye-thoughts in prayer. Consider O Lord (saith David) how I mourn (Psa 55:1-23.). There was something in the prophets prayer that did vex him, and that made him so much the more to mourn before God. But as for you that can have bye-thoughts in prayer, and let them abide with you, your prayers are not importunate; the heathen shall rise up against you and condemn you. I remember a story of a certain youth, who being in the temple with Alexander, when he was to offer incense to his god, and the youth holding the golden censer with the fire in it, a coal fell on the youths hand and burnt his wrist; but the youth considering what a sacred thing he was about, for all he felt his wrist to be burnt, yet he would not stir, but continued still to the end. This I speak to shame those that can let anything, though never so small, to disturb them, yea (if it were possible) lesser things than nothing; for if nothing come to draw their hearts away, they themselves will employ their hearts.

III. How TO GET IMPORTUNITY IN PRAYER.

1. Labour to know thy own misery.

2. You must be sensible of your misery.

3. Observe the prayers of Gods people.

4. Get a stock of prayer.

5. Labour to be full of good works.

6. Labour to reform thy household. (W. Fenner, B. D.)

The prayer of faith

The prayer of faith includes the following attributes:

1. Earnest desire.

2. Submission.

3. Dependence.

4. An earnest and diligent use of means.

5. Deep humility.

6. Faith.

7. Perseverance.

8. An absorbing regard for the glory of God.

(The Preachers Treasury.)

The value of prayer

Undoubtedly, Gods rule of action in nature we have every reason to regard as unalterable; established as an inflexible and faithful basis of expectation, and so far embodying the essential conditions of intellectual and moral life, and, for that reason, not open to perpetual variation on the suggestion of occasional moral contingencies. Petitions, therefore, for purely physical events other than those which are already on their way–e, g., for the arrest of a heavenly body, the diverting of a storm, the omission of a tide–must be condemned, as at variance with the known method of providential rule. But a large proportion of temporal events are not like these, dealt out to us from the mere physical elements; they come to us with a mixed origin, from the natural world indeed, yet through the lines of human life, and as affected by the human will. The diseases from which we suffer visit us in conformity with the order of nature, yet are often self-incurred. The shipwreck that makes desolate five hundred homes is due to forces which may be named and reckoned, yet also, it may be, to the negligence which failed to take account of them in time. Wherever these elements of character enter into the result, so that it will differ according to the moral agents attitude of mind, it is plainly not beyond the reach of a purely spiritual influence to modify a temporal event. The cry of entreaty from the bedside of fever will not reduce the patients temperature, or banish his delirium; but if there be human treatment on which the crisis hangs, may so illuminate the mind, and temper the heart, and sweeten the whole scene around, as to alight upon the healing change, and turn the shadow of death aside. The prayer of Cromwells troopers, kneeling on the field, could not lessen the numbers or blunt the weapons of the cavaliers, but might give such fire of zeal and coolness of thought as to turn each man into an organ of Almighty justice, and carry the victory which he implored. Wherever the living contact between the human spirit and the Divine can set in operation our very considerable control over the combinations and processes of the natural world, there is still left a scope, practically indefinite, for prayer, that the bitter cup of outward suffering may pass away–only never without the trustful relapse, Not my will, but Thine, be done. (James Martineau, LL. D.)

Is the prayer of faith always answered?

I havent time to answer that question as I should like to do; but faith must have a warrant. A good many people think they have faith enough when they ask for certain things; yet their prayers are not answered, and they wonder why. The trouble is, their faith had no warrant. For instance, if I should go out to meet the army of Midian at the head of three hundred men with empty pitchers I should probably be routed. Gideon had a warrant. God told him to go, and he went, and Midian couldnt stand. We have got to have some foundation for our faith, some promise of God to base our faith upon. Then again, if we dont get our prayers answered just as we want them it is no sign that God doesnt answer prayer. For instance, my little boy when he was eight years old wanted a pony. He got his answer; it was No. Was his prayer answered? Of course it was. I got him a goat. A pony might have kicked his head off. A goat was a good deal better for a boy eight years old than a pony. It is a foolish idea to think that God has got to do everything you ask. You will notice that the people whose prayers are recorded in the Bible didnt always have their prayers answered just as they wanted them to be, but often in some other way. In all true prayer you will say, Not my will, but Thine, be done; and all true prayer will be answered if you have made it in that spirit. God likes to have His children ask for just what they want, even though the answer He will give may be Very different from what they expect. I want my children to ask me for what they want, but I dont give them all they ask for by a good deal. So make your requests known unto God, and the peace of God shall keep you. Look at those three men of Scripture that take up more room than any other three men in the whole Bible–Moses, Elijah, and Paul. Look at Moses and Elijah in the Old Testament. They didnt get their prayers answered in the way they wanted them, and yet God answered their prayers. You remember Moses wanted to go with the children of Israel into the goodly land, the promised land. You can imagine how strong that desire was after he had been with them for forty years wandering in the desert. He wanted to go into the promised land, and see his children settled in their home. But it wasnt the will of God that Moses should go. And that wasnt because God did not love Moses, for He took him up into Pisgah and showed him the whole country. A great many years later Moses did stand in the promised land, on the Mount of Transfiguration. His prayer wasnt answered in his way. God had better things in store for Moses; and certainly I would rather be on the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus Christ, and Peter, James, and John, than to have had to go over and fight as Joshua did. So we are not to think that God doesnt answer our prayers because He doesnt answer them just in the way and the time we want them answered. Take Elijah. If there ever was a man that knew how to pray it was Elijah. In the power of prayer he stood before Ahab and wrought wonders. After all that he prayed that he might die under the juniper tree. Was his prayer answered in his way? Why, he was the only man under that dispensation who was to go to heaven without dying. I heard of a little boy, four years old, who asked his father to let him take a razor in his hand. His father said, Oh, no, my boy; you will cut yourself. Then that little fellow just sat down and cried as if his heart would break. A great many grown-up people are just like that–they are praying for razors. Elijah prayed for a razor–he wanted his throat cut. But his prayer wasnt answered that way. God wasnt going to take his life, or let him take it. He had something better for him. And now look at Paul. No one takes up so much space in the New Testament as Paul, and if there ever was a man that had power with God he had it; and yet he prayed three times that the Lord would take the thorn out of his flesh. The Lord said, I wont take it out, but I will give you more grace; and Paul said, Thank God! I wouldnt have it taken out now if I could. I have got more grace by it. If you have got a thorn in the flesh remember that God has sent it for some wise purpose. God sends us tribulations for our good. Paul said he gloried in persecutions, because they lifted him nearer to God and made him more like Jesus Christ. (D. L. Moody.)

Revival always possible

A plain, shrewd man, in one of the daily,, prayer meetings, said that praying for a revival is just like digging for water. Suppose a community as ignorant of the terms of obtaining water as we are of the conditions of revival. They apply to a scientific man, to know whether there is any way to obtain a constant supply of living water. They rather infer, from the fact that it rains tremendously sometimes without their help, that the supply of water is one for which they are ordained to wait passively, and that when it does not rain in their vessels, they must wait as patiently as they may. But if there is water to be had otherwise in a dry time, they would make any exertion to get at it. Certainly there is, their teacher responds, water everywhere, water without limit, under your very feet. How shall we get it. By digging for it. How far must we dig? Five, ten, twenty, or even a hundred feet; in some places a thousand feet will not reach it. But no matter; if it is five thousand feet down, digging will invariably bring it. All you have to do is to dig till you find it.

Seeking and finding

A young lady was seated in a cottage in the North-West of Spain, trying, in very imperfect and recently-acquired Spanish, to make plain the way of salvation to a group of poor villagers who had assembled to hear her. She had just said: Jesus is able to save you to-day; is there any one here really wanting salvation? Immediately a curious-looking little man rose from his seat, and throwing himself on his knees in the centre of the room, the tears streaming down his weather-beaten cheeks, cried out: Oh, I do want to be saved! I would rather have the salvation of my soul than all the good things in this world. Unable to express herself as she would, she said: Only Jesus can save. Seek Jesus. In his ignorance and superstition, the poor peasant took her words literally, and started off after the meeting to seek Jesus, climbing the mountains, hunting the pine forests and the sea-shore, lie did this for three days and nights. At length, weary and disheartened, he threw himself on the ground, in a field, and, with his face on the earth, groaned out his agony of soul to the God of heaven. In His tender compassion lie heard this poor mans cry, and filled his soul with joy and gladness, enabling him to trust in the unseen Lord. He had sought the bodily presence of Christ–a mistake very natural to a man always seeing images of the saints, while the living Saviour, by His Holy Spirit, lifted the veil from his understanding, and revealed Himself, the Light of life, more present and real than any earthly object. When he next appeared at the meeting, his face shone with the joy of heaven, as he told of the wonderful change God had wrought in his soul.

Adams sons are a generation of seekers

but all are not happy in finding what they seek: but you must know that there is a two-fold seeking; one right and true, when all due circumstances are observed therein; that fails not. And there is another kind of seeking, which is unsound and hypocritical; no marvel if that be unsuccessful.

1. Some there are that seek what they should not seek, but rather shun.

2. Others seek recta, but not recte: right things, but they seek not rightly.

3. Some fail in the quando; they seek, but out of season.

4. Some again seek, but not in the place right.

5. Others fail in the sicut; it may be they seek in due time, and in the right place too, but they fail in the manner of seeking, they seek not as they should. Some seek without eyes; they have the eyes of sense and reason, but that of faith is wanting; they seek ignorantly, and unbelievingly, their eyes are not opened, they know not what belongs to their peace. Some seek, but without a light. Some seek, but without humility, proudly and boastingly; not upon their knees, but tiptoes. Some seek, but without sincerity; fictitiously and hypocritically. Some seek, but not purely and chastely; they seek nor grace for graces sake, nor Christ, for Christs sake Hos 7:14; Isa 6:26). Some seek but not fervently and earnestly: They seek not as for silver (Pro 2:4). Lastly, some seek not constantly and perseveringly: Seek the Lord and His strength, seek His face evermore, saith David (Psa 105:4). Wherefore, be we encouraged to set our hearts to seek the Lord aright (1Ch 22:19). Seek what you should seek, seek where you should seek, seek when you should seek, seek as you ought to seek, and rest assured that your labour shall not be in vain; you shall find. In seeking for earthly things at mans hands we often fail; but if we seek the best at Gods hands we always speed. We may go to the physician and seek health, but meet with death; we may go to the lawyer and seek for law and justice, and meet with injustice and oppression; we may seek to friends for kindness and favour, and find enmity and hatred from them! All that seek to men speed not, though their requests be never so just and honest (as we find Luk 18:1). But whom did God ever send away with a sad heart that sought Him sincerely. Suetonius reports of Titus that he was wont to say that none should go away from speaking with a prince with a sad heart. God likes it not that we should go from Him with a dejected spirit: it is our own fault if we do. (N. Rogers.)

The subjective theory of prayer

[That, namely, which restricts the value of prayer to the influence it exerts on the man who prays.] On this thing, Dr. Bushnell says, Prayer becomes a kind of dumb-boll exercise–good as exercise, but not to be answered. Let the Saviours words be carried out in the various figures used, on this theory, and its absurdity becomes at once apparent.

1. He bids us ask. Imagine a child asking for some favour, or for the relief of some want, and standing, hour after hour, repeating his requests, and being told by the father: Go on asking, my child; it does you much good to ask. The longer you ask, the more good it will do you. Do not expect to receive anything, however, as the principal benefit of asking is that, by and by, you will not want anything, and will cease to make any request.

2. Jesus bids us seek. Imagine a mother seeking a lost child. She looks through the house and along the streets, then searches the fields and woods, and examines the river-banks. A wise neighbour meets her and says: Seek on; look everywhere; search every accessible place. You will not find, indeed; but then seeking is a good thing. It puts the mind on the stretch; it fixes the attention; it aids observation; it makes the idea of the child very real. And then after a while, you will cease to want your child.

3. The word of Christ is Knock. Imagine a man knocking at the door of a house, long and loud. After he has done this for an hour, a window opens and the occupant of the house puts out his head, and says: That is right, my friend; I shall not open the door, but then keep on knocking. It is excellent exercise and you will be the healthier for it. Knock away till sundown, and then come again, and knock all to-morrow. After some days thus spent, you will attain to a state of mind in which you will no longer care to come in. Is this what Jesus intended us to understand? No doubt one would thus soon cease to ask, to seek, and to knock, but would it not be from disgust? (W. W. Patton, D. D.)

Urgency in prayer

The emphatic reduplication of the injunction marks what stress the Speaker laid upon it. So does the rising scale of intensity in the words employed: ask–seek–knock. To seek is a more industrious, and solicitous, and animated kind of asking. We ask for what we want; we seek for that which we have lost: and this sense of loss sharpens at once our need and our desire. Again: to knock is a description of seeking at once most helpless and most importunate; since he who seeks admission at his friends door has nothing else to do but go on knocking till he be answered. The asker will study best how to state his plea when once he gains a hearing, but may never care to seek another opportunity. The seeker will make, or watch for, opportunities of access to the patron whose favourable ear he hopes to gain, but, often baffled, may grow weary in his efforts. The knocker must simply trust to the force of patience and of repetition, sure that if he knock long enough he shall be heard, and that, if he continue to knock long enough, he must be attended to. It would be impossible to teach with greater emphasis the idea that prayer is a laborious and enduring exercise of the human spirit, to which we need to be moved by a vivid, unresting, never-ending experience of our own need, and in which we ought to be sustained by a fixed certainty that God will hear us in the end. (J. O. Dykes, D. D.)

The reasonableness of prayer

The principal objection which the thought of our time makes to the efficacy of prayer is based upon the scientific idea of law. Law, it is said, reigns throughout the universe, and is unchangeable and deaf to all entreaty. The truth of all this must be ungrudgingly conceded. If it were not true, if the order of nature were not invariable, there could be no science. No stronger proof that there is an intelligent and benevolent Power, upholding and directing the course of nature, can possibly be given to a thoughtful mind, than its unbroken order and the invariable methods of the Divine will. Such, then, is the Reign of Law, and no man, it is said, can grasp the conception and enter into intelligent sympathy with it, without abandoning the fond conceit that God will grant a favour to one of His creatures on being asked to do so. It may have been pardonable to pray for rain, for health, for freedom from pestilence and famine, when these things were supposed to depend upon the caprice of an omnipotent will, but the scientific idea of law renders these prayers absurd. Well, now, I do not pretend to give a complete answer to this objection; but I have a sufficient answer. It is the commonest fact of human life that man makes the forces and unchanging methods of nature the servants of his will. In this way he makes natural forces perform achievements which, when compared with any merely natural occurrences, might strictly be called supernatural. Now, if man, with his limited knowledge of the laws of the material world, can make them serve his turn in so many ingenious and surprising ways, while their order goes on unbroken, surely an Almighty and all-wise God, by skilful combinations of existing forces, and without departing from a single method to which His wisdom is pledged, can execute the behests of His own will. Surely He has not given man a greater liberty than He has left Himself. But this answer I have given is met by two objections.

1. It is said mans interference with the order of nature is obvious, it is a visible interposition, but who has ever marked the point where God interposes? If he counteracted one law of nature by another to meet the pleadings of His petitioners, would not science have detected His supernatural agency? Certainly not. No scientific man can explain what Force is, upon what its variations of intensity depend, or how its changes of form are brought about.

2. But then, there is another objection–that it is inconsistent with the wisdom of an omniscient God to suppose that He would ever alter His plan at the request of His creatures. Without pressing the answer that, as a God intent upon moral ends, it is part of His plan to leave room for answers to prayer, there is the obvious fact that God actually allows human beings to alter His plan, for His plan means here the original order of nature. The free will, the caprice, if you like, of human beings is constantly originating changes in nature which would not have been if they had not been, or would have been different if they had been other than they are. Now surely what man, for the purpose of his education and progress, has been permitted to do, God, having an eye to the same purpose, must be free to do Himself. The objections against the reasonableness of prayer from the point of view of the scientific conception of law, if valid at all, are valid for a great deal too much. They all imply that man is not free, that every thought of his mind and act of his will are as much determined for him by fixed laws as the course of the wind or the advance of the tide. And if this were true responsibility would be at an end; benevolence and murder would be simply different aspects of nature, like sunshine and storm. Religion would be a mere dream, resembling the fantastic forms of the mist as it catches the changing currents of the passing breeze. But there are very few who would not passionately reject a conclusion that contradicts our consciousness, and writes vanity over all the noblest and most pathetic passages of human history. (E. W. Shalders, B. A.)

Ask and it shall be given you

This is a very defective world. Everybody says so. We have here only the rudiments of things. There is beauty and there is blessing; but only in fragments. The consequence is that we hear endless murmuring and complaining.

1. Ask and it shall be given you, is the reply of God. I have given you half; the other half is in My hand. You build a house, and one stone is wanting to complete it; you search everywhere, and are angry because you find it not. It is with Me; I have kept it purposely, that your house may not be built without Me. You build a ship; but the rudder is not forthcoming. I have kept it, that you may ask and receive, and discover that the whole is My gift.

2. Ask in the right quarter and it shall be given you.

3. Ask in the right way. Let God prescribe how we shall ask Him.

4. Ask for the most essential gifts first. Men on a wreck would ask for a sail, not for an embroidered garment.

5. Ask for regulated tastes and desires. This one gift will cut off at once a thousand occasions of murmuring.

6. Ask with importunity.

7. Ask in faith. (G. Bowen.)

Ask and it shall be given you

Perhaps you shrink from the very thought of mentioning your desires to God. You know enough of the character of God to be aware that the desires which occupy so large a place in your mind, are such as could not be communicated to Him without shame. After all, the best thing, in fact the only good thing you can do with these desires, is to take them to God and expose them to Him, and ask Him in infinite mercy to deliver you from them. Those wrong desires are your worst enemies, and until you be delivered from them there cannot be the dawn of salvation for you. Death came into the heart of Eve in the form of a desire for the forbidden fruit; and blessed would it have been for her if she had hastened to the tree of life seeking deliverance from that internal foe. Ask, then, for the Spirit of power-and of truth to come into your heart, and subdue the vain desires that war against the soul. To have been brought to desire that which is good, is itself an infinite gain–far more to be esteemed than mines of gold and silver. Yes, a man with right desires and nothing else, is at the foot of a ladder leading up to a throne of life, light, and immortality; and bending angels hold out to him their friendly hands.
Whereas a man with wrong desires, though a thousand camels fail to convey his riches, is wending a way that descends more and more precipitously to night and everlasting confusion. (G. Bowen.)

The principle of the text illustrated

We want a railroad into Italy, cries the world, and can go no farther for this mountain. What shall we do to find a way? There is no way, Heaven answers, except to your persistency; but if you seek, you shall find; if you knock, it shall be opened unto you. And so the seeking of the answer to that prayer of the nations is entrusted to the keen sight of men whose searching will never tire until the way is found. The knocking is with hard steel at the hard rock, and it is only a question of persistence and endurance; then at last it has come to pass that even the heart of the unwilling mountain is won, and its midnight sleep driven away; and where for countless ages there has been only an utter and unutterable silence, there is now the mighty response of an answered prayer in the thunder of the locomotive. (R. Collyer.)

Every one that asketh receiveth

We have here no mere surmise on our part as to what becomes of the prayers which we present; it is a distinct affirmation concerning them on the part of God Himself to whom we present them. There is something very definite and precise about these words; there is no explaining them away, or attaching to them any other meaning than the clearly obvious one, every one that asks does receive, and every one that seeks does find. Prayer, however, is necessarily a matter in which two are concerned; and, as such, we have only heard what God has to say on it. What have we ourselves to say on it? Can we, from our hearts, echo Gods words, and testify from our own experience to their truth? Or, rather, is not the sad and perplexing experience of every praying man this: How often have I asked and not received, sought without finding, and knocked without any door being opened to me! How, then, shall we reconcile these two utterances–that of God, to whom we address our prayers, and that of our own experience, as we vainly wait for an answer to our prayers? We must remember that the words in Luk 11:10 are Gods utterance as to prayer, and not mans; and we must admit the likelihood that God from the position from which He views prayer, may have laws relating to it which perhaps must be hidden from us. We must remember that in Luk 11:10 we are not told that they that ask shall see that they receive; that they that seek shall at once have evidence that they find; but simply that they do receive, they do find. Christ reveals this to us in order that, whatever our experience may be, we may know if we cannot see, that every one that seeks does find. He does not tell us that henceforth our experience shall no longer seem to be at variance with the great statement of the passage; it must often seem to be at variance with it, so long as we live on this earth. What Christ does is mercifully to explain to us how this seeming variance may in reality cover an actual and bountiful answer to our prayers. (W. F. Herbert.)

If a son shall ask bread

The illustration of the egg and the scorpion is not to be found in the parallel passage of St. Matthew. It introduces no new thought, but only strengthens the emphasis of what has been said already. It may be observed that the stone represents to us useless gifts, the serpent and the scorpion, things which are actually pernicious. If human fathers would not give either the one or the Other to their children, it is inconceivable that our Father in heaven will mock the prayers of His children who call upon Him. And if He does not mock them, what will He give in answer to His childrens prayers? In the Sermon on the Mount our Lord says that He will give good things; here the language is more definite, the Holy Spirit. The comparison of the two suggests that the best things which we can ask of God are spiritual blessings; we may ask many things which seem good to us, and they may not really be good; but the Holy Spirit is a perfect gift; it must always be well for us to ask for it; it can never be to our detriment to receive it; therefore, while we are cautious how we ask for other gifts, we may always be instant in prayer for greater and still greater influences of the Holy Spirit upon our hearts. (Bishop H. Goodwin.)

You foolish, ignorant children of the great Father in heaven doubt and mourn because the things you pray for are often denied you; but put yourselves, for a moment, in Gods place, so far as to consider the prayers of your little children to you–children whose folly, as compared with your wisdom, is as nothing to your folly when compared with Gods wisdom.

1. Your child comes to you one day hungry, and begging for bread, and, seeing a round, flat stone by your side which bears some resemblance to a loaf, he asks you for it, not for food, but for stone, supposing it to be bread. You do not give it him, but you take him by the hand and lead him home, where there is bread in plenty. The child is hungry, and as you lead him on he is not only hungry, but grieved and sad. My father, he says, whom I have been taught to love and trust, will not even grant me such a simple necessary as a loaf of bread to appease my hunger. You do not give him the thing he prayed for, but are you not fully answering the childs prayer? What he prayed for really was bread, and it is bread that you are about to give him; the cause of the childs grief lies simply in his own childish mistake about the stone.

2. But Christ takes a further case, and not quite a parallel one. Your child, hungry again, comes to you as you wander through the meadow by the river, and asks you for a fish; and seeing a shining thing by yon which he takes to be a fish, he asks you for that, that he may get his hunger satisfied. Again you refuse him, and again he is grieved and perplexed at your refusal as you lead him to the well-spread table at home; but this time you have led your child not merely, as before, from a stone, which would simply have failed to satisfy him, but you have refused him a serpent, which would have poisoned him.

3. And now, Christ would say, these are just the kind of prayers which are constantly rising up from us to our Father in heaven, and the seeming want of answer to which awakens in us such constant doubt and murmuring and complaint.

(1) A stone may look very much like a loaf to a little child, and health or wealth may look very like peace of mind to us; but what if God knows better than we do?

(2) A serpent may look very like a fish to a child, and worldly prosperity in any form may look very much like well-being to us; but what if God knows that prosperity would be to us, net only like a hard stone to a hungry child, utterly unsatisfying and quite harmless, but like a venomous serpent that has a deadly sting? That is just what prosperity has been to many a man–it has poisoned his soul. And that, we may be very sure, is what prosperity would be to us, if God denied it to us.

4. We have been considering hitherto the denims of God to our prayers, for it is they assuredly which perplex us most. But does God merely answer our prayers by denying them? Is it His care merely to shield us from harm, without bestowing upon us any actual, positive good? Not so. Every one that asketh receiveth. Not only is the foolish request denied, but some real and bountiful blessing is actually bestowed. If you refuse the stone or the serpent to your child, still you do not leave him to starve. If ye then Holy Spirit to them that ask Him? Yes, you say, the Holy Spirit; but look at our manifold daily needs as they throng together in our morning prayers; will this one gift of the Holy Spirit supply and satisfy all these? Not all your desires, for you desire stones and serpents, which would break your teeth and poison your life; but all your needs the Holy Spirit can supply; and, more than that, in no other way, except through the Holy Spirit, can your needs be supplied in that bountiful way in which God delights to supply them–in the way, that is, which enriches your spiritual life at the same time, and by the same means as your natural life is enriched. (W. F. Herbert.)

The common articles of food on the shores of the Lake of Tiberius were fish, bread, and eggs. The poor look for nothing else to-day. (E. Stapler, D. D.)

A scorpion

This crab-like member of the articulata is very common in Palestine, where more than eight species are known. The most dangerous variety is the black rock-scorpion, as thick as a finger, and five or six inches long; others are yellow, brown, white, red, or striped and banded. During cold weather they lie dormant, but at the return of heat they crawl forth from beneath the stones under which they have lain hidden, or out of the crevices of walls and chinks of other kinds, and make their way, not only to the paths where men pass, but into houses, where they get below sleeping-mats, carpets, or clothes, or creep into shoes or slippers. They are carnivorous by nature, living on beetles, insects, and the like; but they sting whatever frightens or irritates them. Occasionally the sting causes death. (C. Geikie, D. D.)

The commanding object of prayer

I have been thankful a thousand times that God does not absolutely and unconditionally promise in His Holy Word, any temporal, worldly, sensible blessing in answer to prayer, but only the gift of the Holy Ghost. The order of His kingdom would have been subverted if He had. I know not if there would have been in that case any true prayer for the Holy Ghost at all. The one great, unconditioned, unqualified promise of the gift of the Holy Spirit is purely personal, individual. No absolute promise anywhere that a saint shall receive the Holy Ghost for others by asking, or that on his praying acceptably, it shall be given to other than the one that prays. To them that ask Him. (G. F.Magorm, D. D.)

Gods character viewed through mans higher nature

Consider the use which is here made of human nature by our Saviour in the interpretation of God. By direct analogy our Master taught us to infer the nature of God. If ye, then, being evil, being selfish, imperfect, give good gifts to your children; if parental love, poor as it is, is not so poor but that it will give to the child what the child wants and asks for, within the limits of his own benefit; if ye, being low down in giving power, do these things; if it is simply impossible for a child to appeal to a father or a mother for necessary things without a response, and without the benefit, how much more shall your heavenly Father, &c. Jesus stands and says, Your Father is ineffably more a Father than you. Here, then, is our Master taking the great facts of human experience, and laying them as a part of the argument over against the Divine nature, and saying, This which in you exists in miniature, in the imperfect condition, exists in God in transcendent measure, magnified, augmented, deepened, enriched, more fruitful and more powerful. If we have the products of the temperate zone out of our half developed affections, God is tropical, eternal summer. (H. W. Beecher.)

The Holy Spirit

In the Greek of the New Testament the word rendered Spirit is the word constantly employed to denote wind; and the idea which it suggests is that of an influence in the realm of souls corresponding to the wind in the material world–subtle, untraceable, yet everywhere felt, all-penetrating, all-powerful–with a diversity of operations, too; now a whispering breeze, then an air-torrent; now breathing in calm contemplation, then inspiring a might before which the powers of evil are scattered and broken. Do you ask in what this Spirit is? Ask rather in what it is not.

I. THERE IS A HOLY SPIRIT IN NATURE. Far be from us the theology which relegates creation to the mythical past. God as truly creates, as He created, the heavens and the earth.

II. GODS SPIRIT IS ALSO IN HIS PROVIDENCE, and in our whole experience of life.

III. THE HOLY SPIRIT OF GOD IS IN ALL THE PURE LIVES, GOOD EXAMPLES, AND BENEFICENT HUMAN INFLUENCES THAT ARE AROUND US.

IV. THE HOLY SPIRIT IS IN JESUS CHRIST. The old liturgical formula, The Holy Ghost proceeding from the Father and the Son, is not the mere dogma of a creed, but the fundamental truth of the Christian life.

V. But this is not all. Between human beings presence is COMMUNION. Without word or act, influence, clearly felt and recognized, goes forth from one to the other, especially from the more powerful spirit of the two, if the weaker be confiding and loving, so that a revered and cherished presence is always felt to be a power. Thus must it be of necessity with the Divine presence, and so have all felt it who desire so to feel it.

VI. If this Divine influence, this Holy Spirit, be not a mere dogma, but a vital and present reality, IT BELONGS TO US TO SEEK IT, TO PREPARE FOR IT, TO WELCOME IT. (A. P. Peabody, D. D. , LL. D.)

The gift of the Holy Spirit

I. THE GIFT. The Holy Spirit is the essence of all good things; He is the highest good. This is the first promise of the gift to the disciples.

II. THE GIVER. The heavenly Father is the Giver, and the one thing which I notice about Him is the great willingness with which our Lord says He gives this blessing.

III. THE RECEIVER OF THE SPIRIT.

1. Who may receive into his soul the Holy Spirit? A man may be imperfect and in some respects evil, and yet receive the Spirit. The disciples were evil. The Saviour says so here. Yet He encourages them to ask for and expect the Spirit. Put away the thought from your minds that you must wait until you are holy before you can get the Spirit. You never will be holy until you receive the Spirit.

2. How is He to be received! By simple asking. Let us say, Lord, teach us how to pray, and, having learned how to pray, we shall only need to ask for the Spirit, and He will be given us. (A. Scott.)

The Holy Spirit in relation to missionary work

Let us try to realize our dependence upon the Holy Spirit for every spiritual power essential to the accomplishment of our missionary work. Consider our dependence upon the Holy Ghost.

I. As THE SOURCE OF ALL SPIRITUAL ILLUMINATION.

II. AS THE IMMEDIATE SOURCE OF ALL HOLINESS.

III. AS THE SOURCE OF OUR SPIRITUAL UNITY.

IV. AS THE SOURCE OF SPIRITUAL JOY. And now there are three questions which I wish to put.

1. Are we filled with the Holy Ghost?

2. Is a new Pentecost possible to us?

3. How is the fulness of the Spirit to be obtained? (Griffith John.)

Simply to ask

I was told lately by a young man who had been in Scotland, that he came one day to a gate, when the gate-keepers little girl ran down and shut it, saying, You have not to pay anything to pass; you have only to say, Please allow me to go through. The young man did as he was directed, and simply repeated, Please allow me to go through, and the gate was immediately opened. The owner just wished to preserve the right of entrance; that was all. So, simply ask, and it shall he given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. (C. H.Spurgeon.)

Answered prayers

If in a whole generation tens of thousands of men are praying to God for the things which they need, and if the result of their prayers, in long periods, is to give them larger judgment, better balance, more of those qualities which go to make manhood, then these results are an answer to their prayers. It may not be an answer to individual prayer; it may not be a specific answer to prayer; but it is larger and better than that–it is an answer to prayer such as God sees to be best adapted to thewants of those who pray. I hold that his prayer is answered who rises into the presence of God in such a way that for the time being he feels that he is in the Divine presence. In other words, I think that the whole tone of a mans moral sense and of his intellectual life will be altered by having stood consciously in the presence of Supreme Wisdom, Purity, Goodness, and Power. One day when I was with Mr. Hicks, the painter, I saw on his table some high-coloured stones, and I asked him what they were for. He said they were to keep his eye up to tone. He explained that when he was working in pigments, insensibly his sense of colour was lowered or weakened, and that by having a pure colour near him he brought it up again, just as the musician, by his test-fork, brings himself up to the right pitch. (H. W. Beecher.)

Our privilege to ask largely

There is not the slightest intimation that we can trespass by a too frequent application. It is a challenge to our faith. Ask; and it looks out upon the infinite. It is for our faith to extend it, and to apply it to what treasures of grace and goodness we please. Can we not see that large asking and large expectation on our part honour God? Suppose some friend of ours, whose wealth is known to be practically unlimited, should declare his readiness and willingness to supply all our wants; suppose he should put into our hand a book of cheques, all signed by his own hand, and the amounts left blank for us to fill up in need with such sums as will meet every possible exigency; and then suppose we go about half-starved, groaning with leanness and faintness, or only halfclothed, shivering in thin rags, and the shame of our nakedness bowing us down to the ground. How such a demonstration on our part would shame the truth and generosity of our friend! To ask largely of God (as Elisha asked of Elijah) will prepare us to receive a large blessing. It will control our working; it will shape our plans; it will honour God. (A. L. Stone.)

Prayer an unfailing refuge

When I am out of heart, I follow Davids example, and fly for refuge to prayer, and He furnishes me with a store of prayer. I am bound to acknowledge that I have always found that my prayers have been heard and answered. In almost every instance I have received what I asked for. Hence, I feel permitted to offer up my prayers for everything that concerns me. I am inclined to imagine that there are no little things with God. His hand is as manifest in the feathers of a butterflys wing, in the eye of an insect, in the folding and packing of a blossom, in the curious aqueducts by which a leaf is nourished, as in the creation of the world, and in the laws by which planets move. I understand literally the injunction–In everything make your requests known unto God, and I cannot but notice how amply these prayers have been met. (Fowell Buxton.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 9. And (or, therefore) I say unto you, Ask] Be importunate with God, not so much to prevail on him to save you, as to get yourselves brought into a proper disposition to receive that mercy which he is ever disposed to give. He who is not importunate for the salvation of his soul does not feel the need of being saved; and were God to communicate his mercy to such they could not be expected to be grateful for it, as favours are only prized and esteemed in proportion to the sense men have of their necessity and importance. See this subject explained Mt 7:7-8.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

9-13. (See on Mt7:7-11.)

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

And I say unto you, ask, and it shall be given you,…. This is said by Christ, to encourage to prayer, and importunity in it; that if any one asks of God, in the name of Christ, and in faith, whether it be bread for the body, or food for the soul; or any blessing whatever, whether temporal or spiritual, it shall be given; not according to their deserts, but according to the riches of the grace of God; who is rich unto all that call upon him, in sincerity and truth:

seek, and ye shall find: whether it be Christ, the pearl of great price, or God in Christ; or particularly, pardoning grace and mercy through Christ, or the knowledge of divine things; and both grace here, and glory hereafter, as men seek for hidden treasure; such shall not lose their labour, but shall enjoy all these valuable things, and whatever they are by prayer, and in the use of other means, seeking after:

knock, and it shall be opened to you; the door of mercy with God; the door of fellowship with Christ; the door of the Gospel, and the mysteries of it and of the Gospel dispensation and church state, into which is admission, to all that seek; and the door of heaven, into which there is entrance by the blood of Jesus: the several phrases denote prayer, the continuance of it, and importunity in it;

[See comments on Mt 7:7]

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Shall be opened (). Second future passive third singular of and the later .

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

Ask [] . The word for the asking of an inferior (Act 12:20; Act 3:2); and hence of man from God (Mt 7:7; Jas 1:5). Christ never uses the word of his own asking from the Father, but always ejrwtw, as asking on equal terms. Martha shows her low conception of his person when she uses the term of his asking God (Joh 11:22). 8 Ask, seek, knock. “The three repetitions of the command are more than mere repetitions; since to seek is more than to ask, and to knock than to seek” (Trench, ” Parables “).

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “And I say unto you,” (kago humin lego) “And I tell you all,” those of His church disciples who had requested that He teach them to pray, v. 1.

2) “Ask, and it shall be given you;” (aitetie kai dothesetai humin) “You all ask, and it will be given to you,” Mat 7:7; Mat 21:22; Joh 15:7; Jas 1:5; 1Jn 3:22. You ask with the humility of a persistent night-time beggar, and you will find a similar response.

3) “Seek, and ye shall find;” (zeiteite kai heuresete) “You all seek and you will find,” while He is near, Isa 55:6. Seek as an obedient servant seeks his master’s will, Psa 32:6; But men who are unsaved may seek too late, Mat 25:10-11; Joh 7:34-36; Joh 8:21; Joh 8:24; 2Co 6:1-2.

4) “Knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” (korvete kai anoigesetai humin) “You all knock and it will be opened to you,” and know with the faith and confidence of a friend who expects a welcome response, Jas 1:5-7; Mar 11:24; 1Jn 3:22.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

(9-13) Ask, and it shall be given you.See Notes on Mat. 7:7-11; but note (1) the greater impressiveness of the opening words, And I say unto you, . . . as connected with the previous illustration; and (2) the addition of the scorpion to the serpent, as though the recent combination of the two words in Luk. 10:19 had so associated them that the one was naturally followed by the other.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

9-13. This passage occurs in the Sermon on the Mount. Its connection is so intimate in both cases as to show that it was used on both occasions.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

9. Ask seek knock This man did ask, seek, and knock. It was opened, granted, and obtained by him according to the promise.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘And I say to you, “Ask, and it shall be given you, seek, and you shall find, knock, and it shall be opened to you.”

They must be like the persistent householder. They must ask, yes, they must seek, yes, they must knock. Note the growth in urgency. The man in the parable had asked, then he had pleaded, then he had banged at the door unceasingly. They must be persistent and not take no for an answer. In context this does not apply to prayer for anything we want. It refers to prayer for the Holy Spirit (and in Matthew for the good things of God, the things which result in spiritual blessing). It is the urgency of a man who wants God’s best.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

The Certainty of Provision To Those Who Seek Tomorrow’s Bread, the Holy Spirit (11:9-13).

The lesson here is that those who want to enjoy God’s full provision must be urgent and persistent. There must be no half-heartedness. (It is not God’s awkwardness that has to be overcome, it is our indifference). But if they are persistent they can be sure that they will receive it.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Luk 11:9-10 . Comp. Mat 7:7 f. Practical application of the above, extending to Luk 11:13 , in propositions which Christ may have repeatedly made use of in His exhortations to prayer.

] Comp. Luk 16:9 . Also I say unto you . Observe (1) that places what Jesus is here saying in an incidental parallel with the which immediately precedes: that according to the measure of this granting of prayer, to that extent goes also His precept to the disciples, etc.; (2) that next to the emphasis rests on (in Luk 11:8 the emphasis rested upon ), inasmuch as Jesus declares what He also, on His part, gives to the disciples to take to heart. Consequently corresponds to the subject of , and to the of Luk 11:8 . The teaching itself , so far as Jesus deduces it from that , depends on the argument a minori ad majus : If a friend in your usual relations of intercourse grants to his friend even a troublesome petition, although not from friendship, yet at least for the sake of getting quit of the petitioner’s importunity; how much more should you trust in God that He will give you what you pray for! The tendency of the points therefore not, as it is usually understood, to perseverance in prayer, for of this, indeed, Jesus says nothing in His application, Luk 11:9-10 , but to the certainty of prayer being heard .

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

DISCOURSE: 1521
IMPORTUNITY ENCOURAGED

Luk 11:9-10. I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened [Note: This was written at a great distance of time from that which precedes it, and without any consciousness that the text had been treated before. The reader will excuse a little repetition, for the sake of the different ground occupied in the two Discourses. This was, in fact, preached from Luk 11:5-10. But the insertion of it will shew to young ministers how greatly the same subjects may be diversified; to illustrate which, is an object that the Author has much at heart.].

THE prayer which our blessed Lord taught to his Disciples, and which is contained in the verses before my text, is suited to the Church of God in all ages: and it is a very encouraging circumstance, that, in approaching to the throne of grace, we are able to address the Most High in words which he himself has dictated for our use. But doubts are apt to arise in the mind, whether God will hear the prayers of such worthless and sinful creatures as we are: and, to remove such apprehensions, our merciful and gracious Lord has made an appeal to us respecting our own readiness to assist each other, especially in cases of emergency, and when urged by repeated applications. The appeal, as made by him, carries conviction to the mind. But the argument itself must not be pressed too far. We cannot, in all cases, infer from what man would do, that God will do the same: no, in truth; such a mode of arguing as that would lead, and often does actually lead, to the most fatal errors. I will therefore make the necessary distinctions on this subject; and shew,

I.

In what cases this argument is valid

Certainly it is an argument much used in Holy Writ
[Our blessed Lord states it distinctly in the words following my text: If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him [Note: ver. 1113.]? To the same effect he speaks in the parable of the unjust judge: Hear what the unjust judge saith. And shall not God avenge his own elect, who cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you, that he will avenge them speedily [Note: Luk 18:2-8.]. From these and many other passages it is clear, that the argument, if properly used, is weighty and conclusive.]

But it is an argument much abused by ungodly men
[Nothing is more common than for ungodly men to state what they themselves would do, and to conclude from thence what they are authorized to believe respecting God. And, in fact, this is the strong-hold of atheism itself: for there is not a perfection of the Deity which is not practically denied upon this very ground. Hear how God himself represents this matter: for he who knows the heart, and can interpret infallibly its most secret motions, thus declares, respecting the atheistical and ungodly world: Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the House of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery? For they say, The Lord seeth us not; the Lord hath forsaken the earth [Note: Eze 8:12; Eze 9:9. See also Psa 10:11 and Job 22:13-14.] What is here, but a plain denial both of the omnipresence and omniscience of God? His justice also, and his truth, are alike questioned by them upon the same grounds. St. Paul thus states the objections of an unbelieving Jew: But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, i. e. if our ungodliness be the means of displaying the efficacy and excellency of the Gospel, what shall we say? Is God (i. e. is not God) unrighteous, who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man.) God forbid (replies the Apostle): for then, how shall God judge the world? Then the objector, still pressing his argument, adds, For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory (i. e. if God has overruled my errors for the illustration and confirmation of his own truth), why am I yet judged as a sinner? that is, if I am the means of honouring him, whether intentionally or not, it would be very unjust in God to deal with me as if I dishonoured him. To all which the Apostle answers, You may as well speak out at once, and say, Let us do evil, that good may come: and the only reply that I shall condescend to make to all such impious objectors is, Their damnation is just [Note: Rom 3:5-8.]. Thus, as the justice of God is arraigned in reference to what he has threatened; so also is his truth, in reference to his execution of his threatenings: There shall come, in the last days, scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation [Note: 2Pe 3:4; 2Pe 3:9.]; construing thus the forbearance of God into an utter dereliction of his declared purpose. The sovereignty of God is that against which they set themselves with peculiar vehemence. That God should exercise mercy according to his own sovereign will and pleasure, and not according to any desert of man, is an idea which they cannot endure. They consider that as a warrant to cast all the blame of their condemnation upon God himself; and will confidently say, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? But St. Pauls answer to that objection must silence every human being: Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour [Note: Rom 9:18-21.]? In a word, the whole that God has revealed to us respecting our fall in Adam, our condemnation by the law, our justification by faith alone, and the eternity of future punishment awarded to all who believe not in Jesus Christ; the whole of this, I say, is no better than foolishness in the eyes of unconverted men [Note: 1Co 1:23.]. And the ground of their accounting it foolishness is, that it is a different mode of proceeding from that which they themselves would follow towards one another: for, as they would not punish to all eternity any offence committed against them, so neither ought God to punish sin in that way; and, as they would reward men according to their merits, so ought God to do. In short, they think God to be altogether such an one as themselves: but God will reprove them, and, with righteous severity, will set before them the things which they have done [Note: Psa 50:21.]: for, however just a comparison between God and man may be in some respects, in other respects it can serve no other purpose than to lead us into the most fatal errors.]

Let me, then, mark distinctly, when, and in what cases, this argument is valid
[There is a broad line of distinction to be drawn, and such a line as will suffice to keep us from any material error on the subject. When the comparison relates only to what is good and gracious, the argument founded on it is not only valid, but may be carried to an extent that would be utterly inadmissible on any other subject under heaven. For instance, we may not only say, if an earthly parent will be kind to his child, how much more will your heavenly Parent be so? But we may put the argument thus: If a man will shew the smallest kindness imaginable to his beloved child, how much more will God exercise the greatest possible kindness towards a stranger, provided that stranger call upon him in humility and faith? This is, in fact, the very statement which our Lord himself gives in the verses following my text: for it is worthy of notice, that, in the latter part of the comparison, he drops the relation of a child, and says, How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit unto them that ask him [Note: A similar statement we have in the Epistle to the Hebrews (9:13, 14.): If the blood of bulls &c. will do the smallest thing, i. e. will cleanse the body from a mere ceremonial defilement, how much more will the blood of Christ, &c. do the greatest, i. e. cleanse the soul from all manner of moral defilement, and sanctify it wholly unto the Lord?]? But, when the comparison supposes or implies any claim on God, then is it not only vain, but impious in the extreme: for man has no claim whatever upon God. The very devils have as much claim upon him as we, unless we come to him in the name of Christ. On our fellow-creatures we have a claim; but on God we have none: and if we presume to say, I would not act so or so towards a fellow-creature; therefore God will not act so or so towards me; we reduce him to a level with ourselves; we bind him by laws to which he is not subject; and we prescribe rules to him which he will never follow. Of our duties to man we may form some judgment: but we cannot by searching find out God [Note: Job 11:7.]; who dwelleth in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, or can see [Note: 1Ti 6:16.]: and if we attempt to speak of him, we only darken counsel by words without knowledge [Note: Job 38:2.].]

Having shewn in what cases this argument is valid, I proceed to mark,

II.

The force of it, as here applied

Our blessed Lord here institutes a comparison between God and man, as moved by importunity to exercise kindness towards a suppliant friend. Hear,

1.

His statement

[Who amongst us, if a friend came to him, even at midnight, for bread to set before one who had unexpectedly come from a great distance to take up his abode with him, would refuse his request? We might, probably enough, express reluctance at first, on account of the disturbance it would occasion to our family; but, on his urging his request, we should grant it: though the feelings of friendship should not suffice in the first instance to produce an acquiescence in his wish, his importunity would be sure to prevail. The parallel between God and us is here so obvious, that our Lord forbears to state it; because every one will naturally draw it for himself. For instance: will an earthly friend act thus? What then will not our heavenly Friend do, whose love so infinitely transcends all that ever existed in a mortal bosom? And will an earthly friend do this with such inconvenience to himself and family; and shall his reluctance be overcome by dint of importunity? What then will not He do, who, at whatever hour he be applied to, can experience no inconvenience, and who delights in importunity, as the best possible expression of our love to him? Here the argument is clear and strong; and such as must carry conviction to every mind. Hear then,]

2.

His conclusion

[Justly does our blessed Lord found on this statement an exhortation to us, to be in supplication urgent, and in expectation confident. Let usask whatsoever our necessities require: let us seek it, too, in every way that we can devise: and, if our heavenly Friend appear inattentive to our suit, let us stand knocking at his door, till he come to our aid. Let us take no refusal. Of his sufficiency we can entertain no doubt; nor should we for a moment call in question his willingness to help us. Delays, instead of discouraging us, should only increase the ardour of our suit: for, succeed we must. Our blessed Lord tells us, Ye shall, ye shall, ye shall succeed. Ask, and ye shall have; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Before we yield to any discouragement as to the issue of our supplications, let us find an instance wherein such importunity was ever known to fail. Let us search the annals of the whole world: and if, from the beginning of the world unto this hour, we find not one single exception, yea, and are assured by Him who knoweth all things, that no exception ever did exist; then let us, like Jacob of old, close, as it were, with our heavenly Friend, and wrestle with him all the night; and tell him plainly, that we will not let him go until he bless us [Note: Gen 32:24-28.]. If we act thus, we may as well doubt the existence of a God, as doubt the issue of our supplications: for every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh (however unworthy he may be of the favour asked), it shall be opened.

Behold, then, the force of the argument as here applied; and know, that where goodness and grace are the points of comparison between God and man, the argument can never be too strongly put, or the inference be too securely drawn.]

Application

Are there any here present who doubt the efficacy of prayer?
[Such existed in the days of old; even men who said, What profit should we have, if we pray unto him [Note: Job 21:15.]? But on what grounds can such a question be asked? If it be from an idea that God is incapable of attending to the concerns of men, then hear his indignant reproof of this atheistical conceit: They say, the Lord shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it. Understand, ye brutish among the people; and ye fools, when will ye be wise? He that planteth the ear, shall he not hear? He that formed the eye, shall not he see? He that chastiseth the heathen, shall not he correct? He that teacheth man knowledge, shall not he know? The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity [Note: Psa 94:7-11.]; aye, and ye will find them vanity too, my brethren, if ye persist in such conceits as these.]

Are there any who think they can be saved without prayer?
[Be assured that, however willing God is to bestow his blessings, he will be sought unto before he will impart them: for the condition he has imposed is this; Ask and ye shall have. And if ye will not comply with that, then know, that nothing awaits you but destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power [Note: 2Th 1:9.]: for he has irreversibly declared, that the wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the people that forget God [Note: Psa 9:17.]. If ye say, This shall not be; then will I bring to your remembrance that awful admonition, God is not a man, that he should lie; nor the son of man, that he should repent. Hath he said, and shall he not do it? hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good [Note: Num 23:19.]? Gods promises, it is true, are free and full: but he will be inquired of, in earnest prayer, before he will vouchsafe to you his proffered blessings [Note: Eze 36:37.].]

Lastly, Are there any who are discouraged by the idea that God will not condescend to them?

[Persons too of this description were found in the days of old, who, in a desponding mood, complained, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my God hath forgotten me. But what was the answer of God to them? Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget: yet will not I forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee on the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me [Note: Isa 49:14-16.]. Here is the very argument that is urged in my text, and with all the force which has been given to it. Let it come home to all your hearts, and make every one of you to pray, without ceasing [Note: 1Th 5:17.], and without a doubt [Note: Jam 1:6-7.].]

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

9 And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

Ver. 9. Ask and it shall be given ] Ask, seek, knock. It is not a simple repetition of the same thing, but an emphatic gradation, and shows instantissimam necessitatem, saith Augustine. Nec dicitur quid dabitur, saith he, to show that the gift is a thing supra omne nomen, above all name.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

9. ] What follows is in the closest connexion, and will not bear the idea that it is transferred here merely as being appropriate. The , , , all answer to the features of the parable .

Luk 11:10 declares to us not merely a result observable here among men, (in which sense it is not universally true ,) but a great law of our Father’s spiritual Kingdom: a clause out of the eternal covenant, which cannot be changed.

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Luk 11:9-13 . The moral of the story ( cf. Mat 7:7-11 ). , etc., and I (the same speaker as in Luk 11:8 ) say to you , with equal confidence. What Jesus says is in brief: you also will get what you want from God, as certainly as the man in my tale got what he wanted; therefore pray on, imitating his . The selfish neighbour represents God as He seems, and persistent prayer looks like a shameless disregard of His apparent indifference.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Luk 11:9-10 correspond almost exactly with Mat 7:7-8 . Vide notes there.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Ask. seek. knock. Note the Figure of speech Anabasis (App-6). Ask. Greek. aiteo. Always used of an inferior to a superior. Never used of the Lord to the Father.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

9.] What follows is in the closest connexion, and will not bear the idea that it is transferred here merely as being appropriate. The , , , all answer to the features of the parable.

Luk 11:10 declares to us not merely a result observable here among men, (in which sense it is not universally true,) but a great law of our Fathers spiritual Kingdom: a clause out of the eternal covenant, which cannot be changed.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Luk 11:9. , and it shall be given) as to that friend in the parable.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

I say: Luk 13:24, Mat 6:29, Mat 21:31, Mar 13:37, Rev 2:24

Ask: Psa 50:15, Psa 118:5, Jer 33:3, Mat 7:7, Mat 7:8, Mat 21:22, Mar 11:24, Joh 4:10, Joh 14:13, Joh 15:7, Joh 15:16, Joh 16:23, Joh 16:24, 2Co 12:8, 2Co 12:9, Heb 4:16, Jam 1:5, Jam 5:15, 1Jo 3:22, 1Jo 5:14, 1Jo 5:15

seek: Luk 13:24, Psa 27:4, Psa 27:8, Psa 34:4, Psa 34:10, Psa 105:3, Psa 105:4, Son 3:1-4, Son 5:6, Isa 45:19, Isa 55:6, Isa 55:7, Jer 29:12, Dan 9:3, Amo 5:4-6, Joh 1:45-49, Act 10:4-6, Rom 2:7, Heb 11:6

knock: Luk 13:25, 2Co 6:2

Reciprocal: 1Ki 2:20 – Ask on Psa 65:2 – thou Psa 86:5 – unto all Pro 2:5 – shalt Jer 13:27 – wilt Jer 29:13 – ye shall Act 8:22 – pray Act 9:11 – for Jam 4:2 – because

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

COMMANDING PRAYER

Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

Luk 11:9

There is no particular subject of prayer to which this exhortation is to be applied. It is perfectly general; it is universal. There is no boundary. Ask, ask everything. How large, how grand, how worthy, how like the great God and Saviour!

Are there any pre-requisites to make prayer effectual? Yes, three.

I. It must be made in the name of Jesus.Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name He will do it. In My name. In the name of Jesus. Certainly it is not enough to put the word at the end of your prayer. That is not all. It means, I claim upon the merit of the intercession of the Lord Jesus Christ. It means more than that. It means, I personate Him, and He personates me. That is true in the case of every Christian. If I am a real Christian, I am a member of Christ, and as a member I represent my Head, and He, as my Head, represents me. Wonderful, almost incredible fact, but it is a fact, and by virtue of that fact I command the answer to my prayer.

II. Prayer must be accompanied by a holy life.We must lift up holy hands. And David says, If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me. And we may say that for this reason, if there were no other, an irreligious life shows that I have not rightly used what God has already given me. I cannot expect He will give me more, when I have abused what he has already given me.

III. There must be faith.Whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive. And again, what things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. That faith is a gift, but though it be a gift yet to make that faith, you must have great ideas of the great God, and you must know your Bible very well.

Fulfil these three conditions and no covenanted thing will ever fail you.

Rev. James Vaughan.

Illustration

What may the supplicant ask? Anything, anything in the whole world he likes, so it be done humbly, reverently, with filial modesty and filial confidence; anything; nothing is too infinitesimally small, nothing is too infinitely great, for we are dealing with Him Who at one and the same time wields the universe and numbers the hairs of our head; to Whom the nations are as a drop in the bucket, Who rules the world, and regulates a sparrows fall. We may ask anything. We may ask many things which, perhaps, it would have been better for us not to have asked, which we should not have asked if we had known everything; but a little child is quite ready to pour out all its little heart into a Fathers ear. As it is truly and beautifully said, When we present our mixed nosegay, God knows well how to separate it, leaving the weeds, and taking only the flowers.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

3

This paragraph is explained in detail at Mat 7:7-11, which is a part of the “sermon on the mount” delivered to the disciples.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Luk 11:9-10. See on Mat 7:7-8. But the words are not taken from that discourse: they apply the lesson of the parable, namely, that God will, even when He seems to delay, hear and answer prayer. The law of His kingdom is here laid down in literal terms.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Our Saviour here goes on to urge us to importunity and constancy in prayer; he bids us ask, seek, and knock, and assures us we shall be accepted, heard, and answered.

Here note,

1. That man is a poor indigent creature, full of wants, but unable to supply them.

2. As man is an indigent and insufficient creature, so God is an all-sufficient good, able to supply the wants, and to relieve the necessities, of his creatures.

3. That Almighty God stands ready to supply all our wants, not temporal only, but spiritual also, affording his grace, and the assistance of his Holy Spirit, to them that ask it.

4. If therefore we want the grace of God, and the asistance of his Holy Spirit, it is our own fault, and not God’s; it is either for want of seeking, or for want of earnestness in asking; for our Saviour expressly assures us, that God denies it to none; but every one that asketh receiveth.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Luk 11:9-10. I say unto you, Ask, &c. Pray frequently, and be most earnest and importunate in your prayers, because thus you shall obtain whatsoever you ask agreeably to the will of God. For if importunity would prevail thus with a man that was displeased at it, much more will it prevail with God, who is infinitely more kind and ready to do good to us than we are one to another; and is not displeased at our importunity, but accepts it, especially when the object of it is spiritual mercies. If he do not answer our prayers, and grant our requests presently, yet he will answer them in due time, if we continue to pray and exercise faith in his power, love, and faithfulness. Ask, therefore, what God in his word authorizes you to ask, and what you are persuaded it would be for Gods glory that you should receive, and it shall be given you Either the thing itself which you ask, or that which is equivalent; either the removal of the thorn in the flesh, or grace sufficient to enable you to bear it. Of this we have an assurance from Christs own mouth, who knows his Fathers mind, and in whom all the promises of God are yea and amen. But we must not only ask, we must also seek, in the use of means; must second our prayers with our endeavours; and in asking and seeking, we must continue urgent, still knocking at the same door, and we shall at length prevail. For every one that asketh receiveth Even the meanest saint shall have his petition granted, that asks earnestly, importunately, and in faith. This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, Psa 34:6. When we ask of God those things which Christ, in the above prayer, has directed us to ask, namely, that his name may be sanctified; that his kingdom may come, and his will be done; in these requests we must be importunate, and must never hold our peace day or night. See on Mat 7:7-8; where the same passage occurs.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Luk 11:9-10. And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. 10. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Luk 11:9 formally expresses the application of the preceding example; all the figures appear to be borrowed from that example. That is evident in the case of knocking. The word ask probably alludes to the cries of the friend in distress, and the word seek to his efforts to find the door in the night, or in endeavouring to open it. The gradation of those figures includes the idea of increasing energy in the face of multiplying obstacles.

A precept this which Jesus had learned by His personal experience (Luk 3:21-22).

Ver. 10. confirms the exhortation of Luk 11:9 by daily experience. The Future, it shall be opened, which contrasts with the two Presents, receiveth, findeth, is used because in this case it is not the same individual who performs the two successive acts, as in the former two. The opening of the door depends on the will of another person.

How can we help admiring here the explanation afforded by Luke, who, by the connection which he establishes between this precept and the foregoing example, so happily accounts for the choice of the figures used by our Lord, and brings into view their entire appropriateness? In Matthew, on the contrary, this saying is found placed in the midst of a series of precepts, at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, detached from the parable which explains its figures; it produces the effect of a petal torn from its stalk, and lying on the spot where the wind has let it fall. Who could hesitate between the two narratives?

Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)

Encouragements to pray 11:9-13

Jesus continue His instruction by providing further encouragement to ask of God in prayer.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

A promise from Jesus 11:9-10

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

Jesus introduced this promise with a phrase that underlined its reliability and gave His personal guarantee. Everyone who asks of God will receive from Him, not just the persistent (cf. Mat 7:7-8). In the context everyone is every one of His children (Luk 11:13). Jesus urged His disciples to pray. He probably meant that we must ask to receive (cf. Jas 4:2). Those who seek God’s attention and response in prayer will find it (cf. Jer 29:12-13). Those who knock on the closed door of God’s heavenly house will find that He will open to them and give them what is best (cf. Luk 11:7).

"In other words, don’t come to God only in the midnight emergencies, but keep in constant communion with your Father." [Note: Wiersbe, 1:215. Author’s italics removed.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)