“I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need. 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. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened” (Luke 11:8-10).
Jesus ended a parable about prayer with this application. The woman who woke her neighbor at midnight and asked for bread was put off by her neighbor. The neighbor doesn’t represent God, who isn’t like that. That’s not the point of the story anyway. The key to the story is the one Greek word translated accurately by two English words—“shameless audacity.” The beauty of this woman’s prayer is that she prayed with shameless audacity.
We know that is what Jesus was teaching because of what He said immediately after the story. Literally, He said “Keep on asking and it will be given to you; keep on seeking and you will find; keep on knocking and the door will be opened to you.” This woman modeled that lesson. Don’t be too timid to pray boldly and don’t give up.
Lest this sounds like we are being rude when we treat prayer this way remember that it is Jesus giving this instruction. God loves it when we trust Him enough to talk to Him about anything and He isn’t offended by our “shameless audacity.” He loves to stretch our faith by encouraging us to continue in prayer.
The prayers that touch God’s heart are prayers that involve such important issues in our lives that we can’t give up without an answer. God may say “No” and He may say “Not now” but He will not ignore prayer from a heart that trusts Him. If He invites us to be shamelessly bold in prayer who are we to give up too soon!
