Parable Of The Friend At Midnight

Pastor Mike here.

In Luke chapter 11, verses 5-8, Jesus tells the story…

“Suppose one of you shall have a friend, and shall go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves; 6 for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; 7 and from inside he shall answer and say, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been shut and my children and I are in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ 8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs.”

And this Parable of the Friend at Midnight is all about prayer.

And it’s interesting that Jesus chooses the relationship of friends to speak on it.

And as the friend of the friend who comes to the door to ask for help, the friend in bed in the parable, in some ways he represents God the Father who we approach in prayer.

And the point here is: He’s our friend.

We are no longer at odds with God the Father, who’ve accepted Christ as Savior.

We have a friend to approach in prayer

And then secondly, we can go to Him, God the Father, our friend, at any time in prayer, no matter, and even when the clock strikes twelve.

And in our darkest hour, we have a friend we can go to in prayer.

And then now thirdly and lastly, our friend that we can approach in prayer and at any time go to, He’s not reluctant, nor is He put off when it comes to helping us.

In contrast to the man in bed who’s bugged by his buddy and finally gets out of bed to help him, to just get him off his back it seems, I believe Jesus uses this contrasting example to emphasize another point.

Of course, God the Father isn’t bugged by us.

Neither do we have to resort to twisting his arm to get Him to do something.

Quite to the contrary.

In this regards, He’s opposite to the friend in bed.

He’s not pulling the covers over His head and hiding under His blanket, thinking, “Not him (or her) again,” when we pray.

Instead, He’s poised and ready to come to our aid and ever desirous of doing so.

Persistence in prayer has nothing to do with God’s reluctance.

It has everything to do with our laying hold of His highest willingness.

(If you can’t see this video, click here.)