IMPORTUNITY REWARDED One day Jesus was asked by His disciples to teach them to pray. So Jesus taught them the prayer we all know so well, beginning with "Our Father, which art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name." But Jesus told them it was not enough to pray: they must not get tired of praying, even if they failed to receive quickly the things they asked for. They must keep on asking, until God in His own time and manner should grant them what He saw to be good. This great lesson Jesus taught them by the following parable:
"Which of you shall have a friend," said Jesus, "and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him? And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not, the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee. I say unto you," said Jesus, "though he will not rise and give him because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity (continued asking) he will rise and give him as many as he needeth."
Then Jesus told His disciples, and He tells us too, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." For, said He, "every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." If we ask for those things that God sees to be good for us, we may certainly expect to receive them. Let us ask God to keep us every day; and to give us such things as He knows will be for our good.
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