Sometimes you and I have to stoke up enough nerve to ask someone for a favor. We find it tough to ask for something -- for anything. I'm not thinking about asking someone for a large sum of money either. It can be as simple as asking for a ride when our own car is temporarily out of commission, or asking someone at a dinner table to pass us the potatoes. We are inclined to hesitate when it comes to asking favors of others, even small ones.

This is probably the case for at least two reasons. First, we tend to be fiercely independent. We want to do things on our own. In the second place, we fear that others might view us as being inadequate if we have to ask for something, even when the predicament is quite understandable. Along with these two reasons there is a general, vague feeling that we don't want to be a bother to someone else.

Sometimes prayer means asking for something. For that reason alone, people may hesitate to pray. When they consider that it is God they are addressing in their prayer, they may become doubly hesitant. In the gospel story before us, Jesus wants to assure us that we have permission to pray! More than that, he's telling us that it's okay to "bother" God, even stir up God, if need be, when we come to him in prayer.

Is there something in your heart you'd like to ask God about; something you'd like to ask him for? Jesus would say, "Go ahead; don't hesitate; don't be embarrassed. Take it to the Lord in prayer!" Let's listen as Jesus talks about all this. The outline to guide us is threefold: 1) the promise of prayer; 2) the reality of prayer; and 3) the practice of prayer.

The Promise Of Prayer

Despite the fact that you and I may hesitate about asking for anything -- even in prayer -- we ought to be encouraged about coming to God in prayer when we realize the promise of prayer. We do lots of things in life when a promise -- and dare we say, sometimes a reward -- is connected to them! Children are typically motivated about carrying out a request when some reward is promised. But we are all that way! With the right promise behind it, we will pursue even a disagreeable prospect.

The attractive promise that Jesus announces here is that as we pray we ought to take into consideration that God is on our side. That's an encouraging truth, isn't it? God is on our side! Let's look at the concluding verses of this text first. Notice the imagery Jesus uses to bring us this good news. In verses 11-13 Jesus appeals to our reasoning power when he asks, "What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"

Yes, even a human father doesn't usually treat his children cruelly. If that's true, think of how much more the heavenly Father desires to bless us all. In other words, Jesus wants us to be convinced that God is unquestionably on our side. From the beginning of our prayer, God is ready to listen for the sake of bringing us the best possible blessing. What a promise!

Even before we get set to pray, haven't you and I previously experienced God's good intentions toward us? Look at the marvelous world God has given us by God's creative power. God didn't give us a stripped-down, boring universe. On the contrary, our world of landscapes and the universe of planets and stars constantly invigorate us with their beauty and agreeable surprises. God could have had us live minimally; instead we are constantly surrounded by a variety that brings spice to life. God gives us extras; God is on our side!

The First Article of the Creed tells us as much. But it is in the Second Article, where we confess Jesus Christ as Savior, that we come to realize in the most profound way that God is on our side. The Second Article leads us into the uttermost region of God's heart. There we find a heart ready and willing to forgive us. So much is God on our side that even when we deserve being rejected by God and condemned, God takes a path that forgives and restores us.

All of this God does because of Jesus Christ. His suffering for our sins, his death for our guilt, and his resurrection on Easter Day are positive signs of God's commitment to you and me. We have a Father who will not let us go! He will not let us down! In the eighth chapter of the book of Romans, Saint Paul verbalizes this wonder: "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Paul crowns this thought later in the chapter in the triumphant question: "If God is for us, who is against us?" The promise of prayer is that you can pray, you are invited to pray, you are encouraged, if need be, to storm the gates of heaven with your prayers. After all, God is on your side.

I believe that, as human beings, this is just the truth we are waiting to hear. A few years ago on television, a public speaker was giving a talk about the three deepest needs we have as persons. What would you imagine those to be? The first need we have, the speaker said, is to know someone who will listen to us. We all have a story to tell, a need to verbalize our feelings. We want someone who will listen to that. Secondly, he claimed, we want the person listening to believe what we are saying. We want someone who will trust our story. Finally, the television speaker said that when we have found such a person who listens to us and trusts us, we want to be assured that such a person is on our side. We don't want to be involved with someone who will misuse or abuse our story (through gossip, for instance), but who will remain on our side, perhaps despite our story.

From personal experience I'd say the speaker touched on an important aspect of our deepest need as people. The promise of prayer -- of Christian prayer -- is that for the sake of Jesus Christ our Savior, a loving Father is ready to listen to you and me; as God listens, we may be assured that God is on our side all the way. This is the promise of prayer.

The Reality Of Prayer

So now that we realize the promise of prayer, it is time to move on to the reality of prayer. It's easy for most of us to have someone encourage us about praying. But then we ask, "What do I do now? How do I go about praying?" The disciples in this story must have felt similarly lacking. In the opening verse here it says that one of them came to Jesus, who had just finished praying, and asked him, "Lord, teach us to pray...." Like us, they too wanted to know about the reality of prayer.

When Jesus responded by giving them the words we now know as the Lord's Prayer, I believe his goal was more general than specific. Though the words have turned out to be the classic prayer of Christendom, I believe that Jesus initially intended them to portray the spirit of our prayers instead of specified words. Look closely at the Lord's Prayer sometime. What it expresses is an attitude about how we're going to think of God and how we're going to live our lives. Jesus is making it clear here that prayer is a way of living more than it is a daily ritual of words. The apostle Paul affirmed such an approach when he wrote the famous brief sentence, "Pray without ceasing." Part of what he meant by that involves the thought that all of our lives ought to be a prayer to God. The sense of living in God's presence should be an ongoing reality in our lives.

Most of us have heard something about learning how to pray when one finds oneself in a foxhole. The expression arose out of the Second World War, when many a soldier had to take refuge from bombs and bullets by lying in trenches called foxholes. With explosions taking place all around, a soldier, it was surmised, learned quickly how to pray, how to plead for safety and God's care while enemy fire was blazing overhead.

Who wouldn't pray when the troubles and disasters of life are inundating us? But far better it is to be living in a spirit of prayer at every time of life. That's what Jesus is trying to teach the disciples here when he gives them the treasured words of the Lord's Prayer: live every moment knowing that a loving heavenly Father is on your side. Hallow God's name by realizing that all of life is hallowed and sacred. God's kingdom is always among us, and every time is the right time to live according to God's will. Realize further that God will always supply the daily bread you need. Live in forgiveness and peace with all others, because in the cross of Christ God has forgiven you, too. Don't put yourself in situations where you could be tempted to sin. Don't make it unduly difficult for God to deliver you from evil. Acknowledge God's sovereignty and stand in awe of God's kingdom, power, and glory. Live all of your life as a prayer to the Lord. Then you will be praying the Lord's Prayer, even though you are not mouthing the words. The reality of prayer is that praying is a way of life more than it is a daily ritual of words.

The Practice Of Prayer

Nevertheless, prayer is often a ritual of words. It is a ceremonial practice of the people of God. It is a daily act that is worthwhile. What does Jesus teach us then, finally, about the practice of prayer?

First of all, Jesus allows for the fact that prayer might become a habit. Consider this: when Jesus first gave these disciples the Lord's Prayer, do you think he realized what a habit those words would become? The Lord's Prayer is now the universal prayer of the Church. It is part of our historic liturgies and forms a climactic element in the consecration of the Holy Communion. We say the prayer at baptisms and make it a part of most public church services. Our children learn these words at an early age. Most Christians I know say the prayer at least once a day. The Lord's Prayer is part and parcel of Christian piety. In other words, among people of the Church, the Lord's Prayer has become a habit.

But what a good habit it is! Could our children learn any better words than these as they pray? When you and I become speechless in our prayers, unable to verbalize what is on our minds, this supreme prayer says it all for us. I brush my teeth and eat some food every day, even as I engage in dozens of other good habits every day. Maybe our Lord surmised that we needed one prayer that would overtake our hearts and minds and be so treasured among us that it would become second nature to us. Personally, I thank God for the good habit of knowing and saying the Lord's Prayer every day. Pastors who visit patients with Alzheimer's disease frequently report that when such patients seem to exhibit no awareness or understanding of what is going on at the moment, they do immediately join in and pray aloud with the minister as those familiar words are intoned, "Our Father, who art in heaven...." Prayer itself, and the Lord's Prayer, can be a sustaining habit.

Along with this thought, is it not true that most of us require some kind of structure in the practice of prayer? The prayers that others have prayed can give structure and content to our own prayers. Go ahead and pray the Lord's Prayer. Its author is the most exquisite teacher the Church has ever had! And how about the treasure of the psalms? These 150 songs of faith contain something for everyone. If you don't know exactly what to pray or how to say it, one of the psalms will give you the words and thoughts for which you are searching. Published prayers in countless books and collections have voiced the petitions of God's people down through the ages. Prayer books will not assure you of taking time to pray, but they will give you something worthwhile to say when you take time to pray. With the Bible and various prayer books at hand, you will probably be more apt to take them in hand and use them! Commit yourself to a time or to several times a day when you will pray.

But the feature about prayer that Jesus wishes to impress us about above all can be stated succinctly: pray with persistence. Never give up asking God for his blessings. Never give up coming to God in faith and trust. Never give up asking.

Jesus tells a charming parable to make this point. A man receives a surprise visitor at midnight. The person needs a place to lodge overnight. In the times when this story was told, the average citizen viewed his duty in such a situation as being fairly compelling. People avoided traveling in the heat of the day; sometimes they wouldn't reach a feasible place to stop until late in the evening. Only the most hardened soul would have the heart to turn down a friend under such circumstances. So the friend is invited in, but the host has no food to offer. So the host knocks on the door of his neighbor/friend, asking for some bread. The neighbor/friend turns down the request of providing bread at this hour. Again, we have to appreciate a practice of the times. Both were probably modest homes. These homes usually had only one large room, multipurpose in use. When the daytime activities of the family were concluded, the living area was recycled into a sleeping area for everyone. During the daytime the single door into the home stood open, signaling to visitors that they were welcome, for the room had not yet been rearranged for sleeping. But once the room was prepared for bedtime, the door was shut, meaning that everyone in the house was now settled for the night in tight quarters. To fumble about and prepare three loaves of bread in such limited space would probably mean waking up the whole brood of children, thus upsetting the household for the rest of the night.

So it is that the neighbor answers the embarrassed host, "Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything" (v. 7). But here we have a host who is so desperate that the commonly accepted closed door signal means nothing to him. He knocks and knocks, again and again. Then Jesus comments about how this petitioner's persistence will eventually press the neighbor until he gives in and shells out the bread. Jesus further comments that the same kind of persistence in prayer is admirable.

Now we have come full circle in our consideration of this text. Why should we dare to be so persistent in our prayers? Why should we even go to the lengths of "stirring up" God, as this man in the story stirred up his neighbor/friend at midnight? Because God is on our side; God has our needs at heart. God understands the predicaments of life. He is probably even impressed when our prayers are not for our own sake but for someone else whose needs we have adopted as our own. We should be persistent because when we have banked on God and God's goodness all along in our lives, there is no reason to stop trusting God and believing in God when we are in a jam. In fact, especially then God will be the good Father who knows what gift will be best for us.

We live in a time when people seem to have given up such hope and trust. Little in life seems worthwhile; much of life doesn't seem worth the effort. Some are not only resigned to the future, but they have also resigned from the future. Their forward thrust is gone. Faith has petered out. Prayer appears to be an anachronism. But this parable encourages us to keep stirring up God until he gives us an ear.

Bil Keane, who draws the popular Family Circus cartoons, portrays a father who is fast asleep on the living room couch, his back facing outward and his face buried in the pillows. Anticipating being bothered by his little boy about who-knows-what, this father has cleverly pinned a paper sign across his back that reads, "Go ask Mommy." The little tyke, unable to read, does just what his dad hopes he won't do: he tugs and tugs at his dad's shirt, asking the question, "What does that sign say, Daddy? Daddy?"

Two points for us: number one, hurray for the little guy, who feels it proper to come and approach his father under any circumstance. Number two, God, thanks be, doesn't need the sleep the father seemed to need. We are not a bother to God -- ever! We never come to God alone as God's child. We come with Christ, and in the name of Christ, and that makes all the difference in the world.