Daily Bible Reading 5th September 2026 // Luke 11:5-13
5 And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, 6 for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; 7 and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything’? 8 I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs. 9 And I tell 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 who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 11 What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; 12 or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
As has already been pointed out, in the teaching that follows the Prayer, both the 'importunacy and battling' of prayer and the 'simple asking' aspect of prayer are wonderfully combined. In the first parabolic illustration, it is importunacy that is stressed. The request is met, not because it is a friend who asks, but because the asking is insistent and importunate. One of the implications of this is that if it is like this with a human and fallible friend, how much more by contrast will it be with a living and loving God! The message is clear and plain: we will be heard! Ask, seek, knock, says Jesus. But we do need to bear in mind all that has been applied in the Lord's Prayer: when we come in that attitude therein exemplified, this will surely work. We must also note the implication in the idea of importunity: in the story of the Syro-Phoenician woman (Matthew 15:21ff), it is clear that Christ was testing her faith in the battle she had to get through. With her, it was triumph through testing.
In the second illustration (11-13) it is the idea of 'relationship' that is stressed. 'If an earthly father, with all his faults and follies, provides for the needs of his child, the heavenly Father, in all the perfection of His love, can be relied upon not to play bad jokes on His children! The Father is worthy of absolute trust, and Jesus is prepared to say this without qualification.' (Caird).
Finally, we would hardly be out of order in reading the reference to the Holy Spirit in 13 back into all that we have said: about the simple life, about the knowledge of forgiveness, and about victory; for it is surely He Who makes all of them a possibility for us.