Adult Bible Study January 20, 2008

Lesson Text: Luke 11:5-13
By George Epp
E-mail: g.epp@sasktel.net

‘So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” Luke 11:9 NIV

There are many worthwhile objectives we can strive toward in this faulty world in which we live.           
In 2000, a Millennium Summit was conducted under United Nations auspices to set goals for 2015 regarding such matters as hunger, AIDS, disease, good governance, etc. After 189 nations adopted the document that resulted; the world felt it had set out on a course to better the lives of millions of people. (Please go to this link, http://www.undp.org/mdg/basics.shtml, to read about these goals.) In a speech in Saskatoon in October 2007, Stephen Lewis, former UN AIDS envoy to Africa, predicted that the halfhearted, slow pace of progress toward these goals so far made their achievement doubtful at best.

In December of 1997, the Framework Convention on Climate Change enacted a treaty to reduce greenhouse gases and combat global warming. The treaty came into force for participating nations in February 2005. In Bali, December 2007, the successor plan to this treaty was formulated, but Japan, Canada and the United States were accused of stonewalling the discussion by declaring that unless the developing nations signed on with meaningful goals, neither would they. (You can read about this at http://unfccc.int/meetings/cop_13/items/4231.php.)

We often make big plans with much enthusiasm and then find our energy and commitment waning as time passes.

In Luke 11:8, Jesus teaches us something important about persistence. We are to work and pray for the redemption of our world, and we are encouraged to be either “bold” (NIV & TNIV) or “persistent” (NRSV) in pursuing what is needed.

Ask, seek, and knock are all actions associated with a prayerful Christian life. How often shall we ask; how far abroad do we need to seek; how persistently should we knock? When I go to someone’s door and knock, I usually rap three times, wait, rap three times again, wait a bit longer, and leave. Repeated asking, similarly, could be construed to be badgering. But asking God to cause his will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, to forgive us as we forgive, to grant us daily bread—this is a daily spiritual exercise.

The world generally lacks both conviction and persistence. Jesus is teaching us that God rewards the fervent persistence of his children.