My comment may be very minimal though the scripture is not. Today I encountered in my Bible reading the following verses in Luke 11. They follow Jesus having been praying and his disciples saying to him, teach us to pray as John the Baptist taught his disciples to pray and Jesus says to them what is called "the Lord's prayer" and follows with 5 And He said to them, “Who among you will have a friend, and will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, 6 since a friend of mine is come to me off a journey, and I have nothing that I will set before him.’ 7 And he answering from within will say, ‘Do not cause me trouble; the door already has been shut, and my children are with me in bed; I am not able, having risen up, to give to you.’ 8 I say to you, even though he will not give to him, having risen up because of being his friend; yet because of his persistence, having risen, he will give him as much as he needs. 9 And I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you. 10 For everyone asking receives; and the one seeking finds; and to the one knocking, it will be opened. 11 And which father among you, if the son will ask for a fish, and instead of a fish, will give to him a serpent? 12 Or also if he will ask for an egg, will he give to him a scorpion? 13 Therefore if you, being evil, know to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father who is in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those asking Him!” My comment concerns the phrase "having risen up". I did not picture before the person having arisen from bed and gone to answer the person making the request. I guess I imagined him yelling from his bed :) But it says, "having risen up" and that makes sense if one wants the kids to stay asleep :) The Lord is encouraging his disciples to be persistent in their prayers--or he is talking about someone who was persistent in their request and he uses them as an example, not with a word of disapproval for being persistent. It is exciting to think of our "unanswered prayers" as being occasions where the Lord has surpassed the sleeping friend and is more attentive to us than just having arisen from bed. I hope that is a fair use and reading. Thank you Lord my God, you are more awesome than I know. Praise your holy name. I've also noticed maybe twice in recent days hearing loud door knocking in the morning when I would have preferred to keep sleeping, and may have in some sense needed more sleep. The knocking seemed to end my sleep for that time. In my case the knocking was apparently not at my door, though that is sometimes difficult for me to identify when hearing the knock. My sleep and my uncertainty is not what the Lord has as his own mind, but it may gesture toward the affect that our knocking has had when our friend has risen up in response to us knocking. We're not just going to see what he will do; we're making a request and trusting him. He knew we were making a request of him; he began to respond to us. Don't think of it as someone starting but not finishing. (He responded but said "no".) Go ahead as instructed and be a friend who continues asking.

Posted by John Fullerton at 2025-02-26 16:04:31 UTC