Missionary Renegade: The Daily Guide. grow. pray. study. The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas, United States for Saturday, 18 June 2016

Saturday, June 18, 2016

The Daily Guide. grow. pray. study. The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas, United States for Saturday, 18 June 2016 - “Ask and you will receive”

The Daily Guide. grow. pray. study. The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas, United States for Saturday, 18 June 2016 - “Ask and you will receive”
Daily Scripture: Luke 11:1 One time Yeshua was in a certain place praying. As he finished, one of the talmidim said to him, “Sir, teach us to pray, just as Yochanan taught his talmidim.” 2 He said to them, “When you pray, say:

‘Father,

May your name be kept holy.

May your Kingdom come.

3 Give us each day the food we need.

4 Forgive us our sins, for we too forgive everyone who has wronged us.

And do not lead us to hard testing.’”

5 He also said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend; and you go to him in the middle of the night and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, 6 because a friend of mine who has been travelling has just arrived at my house, and I have nothing for him to eat.’ 7 Now the one inside may answer, ‘Don’t bother me! The door is already shut, my children are with me in bed — I can’t get up to give you anything!’ 8 But I tell you, even if he won’t get up because the man is his friend, yet because of the man’s hutzpah he will get up and give him as much as he needs.

9 “Moreover, I myself say to you: keep asking, and it will be given to you; keep seeking, and you will find; keep knocking, and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who goes on asking receives; and he who goes on seeking finds; and to him who continues knocking, the door will be opened.

11 “Is there any father here who, if his son asked him for a fish, would instead of a fish give him a snake? 12 or if he asked for an egg would give him a scorpion? 13 So if you, even though you are bad, know how to give your children gifts that are good, how much more will the Father keep giving the Ruach HaKodesh from heaven to those who keep asking him!”

Reflection Questions:
Clearly the disciples believed that something they admired in Jesus came from his praying. They wanted to learn from him—they wanted to be more like him. In verses 9 and 10, Jesus did not mean that if we ask God for a solid gold Porsche full of thousand dollar bills, God promises us that we’ll have it. But he did mean that God will give “good gifts” (by God’s definition, not ours!) when we ask. And verse 13 offered one specific promise: God will always give the Holy Spirit to anyone who asks.

The Lord’s Prayer covered a wide range of concerns, from “Bring in your kingdom” to “Give us the bread we need for today.” It was a model prayer God’s people could weave into their lives. Jesus often used the “How much more…” rhetorical device found in verse 13 to distinguish God’s infinite love and generosity from our human frailty. How secure are you in talking to God about all of your concerns in prayer? What subjects or wishes do you tend to avoid praying about, either because you think God isn’t interested or because you’re afraid God might give you something other than what you ask?

Today’s Prayer:
Dear God, thank you for inviting me into the ongoing conversation with you that we call “prayer.” Help me to never be too busy, or too shy, to ask you both the big and little questions that are on my mind. Amen.
Family Activity:
Do you ever think you should know more than you do about God, the world, and others? Sometimes we feel silly about asking questions, because we think we should already know the answers. But Jesus used questions to help others learn, and we can do the same! Give each family member two slips of paper, then invite them to write down a question on each slip of paper. Let everyone know that the questions can be simple or complex, creative or concrete and based either on fact or opinion. Place the slips of paper in a bowl. Over the next week, take turns reading the questions aloud and spend some time responding to them. Encourage conversation around more open-ended questions. Research the ones that might have a firm answer. Pray for God’s wisdom and guidance as you seek answers to your questions.
-------Insights from Dave Pullin

Dave Pullin serves as the Director of Technical Arts at The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection. The Technical Arts ministry handles all audio/visual/technical support for the church including worship services and events.
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”
Honestly, I really struggle with this verse. Although we know that Jesus is not presenting himself as a genie poised to grant us our wishes, I feel that even when I try to align my desires with what I believe to be God’s desires, there is still a disconnect between what I ask for and the response given. There have been many times where I felt that I have pleaded with God for something greater than myself, yet what I asked for was not given, at least in the way I wanted. Be it healing for a loved one suffering from brain cancer; praying for work for a friend who was in his 18th month being unemployed, struggling to support his family with two young daughters; or a single mom coworker who continues to have to fight for the child support her ex refuses to pay–all of these are prayers of mine that I feel weren’t answered, or in any clear way even acknowledged, by God. This left me really doubting the power of prayer.
I don’t claim to be a theologian, and I definitely do not fully understand the intricacies of prayer. I sometimes still wonder if my prayers do any good for those I am praying for. But what I am discovering is that I believe this verse, this story of Jesus teaching us to pray, is more about an invitation to a conversation with God than a description of a transactional process. For example, the more time I spend time talking and listening to my wife, the closer we become, the stronger our relationship grows, the more we both know what the other desires, and the more I strive to meet my wife’s needs.
I think the same is true with God; the more time I spend in prayer (talking to God), giving my concerns and fears over to God, the more my heart is changed to fully depend on God for all of my needs, just like the child referenced in this scripture. A child is completely dependent upon its parents, and a holistic sense of trust is present. I am beginning to think that an unwavering trust and reliance in God is the ultimate goal of prayer, rather than the specific requests we make day in and day out. Perhaps it is more about the condition of my heart, not the tally of my answered versus unanswered prayers. I am still called to pray for others, but I am less attached to a specific outcome, and more concerned about developing a compassionate heart and seeking ways I can be God’s hands and live out my faith. It is about allowing my faith to become like a child again.
Faith can be a difficult thing. Pastor Scott even defined faith as being more than believing in something–faith is trusting in someone without reservation.
There it is again: Trust. Without reservation.
Perhaps what Jesus is talking about is if we ask, we will come to rely solely on God. If we seek, our faith will continue to guide us back to the Creator. If we knock, we will grow to trust that God will always welcome us home.
Trusting someone without reservation is vulnerable, and opens us up to being hurt. Trusting an entity that we cannot see or hear seems even more so. But in my limited experience, when I am able to be vulnerable to God, when I stop trying to do it all by myself, that is typically when God tends to show up, and usually in the most profound ways.