February 24 2025

Monday February 24

Praying for Bread for a Friend

Luke 11:5-10

5 And He said to them, "Which of you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves; 6 for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him'; 7 and he will answer from within and say, 'Do not trouble me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give to you'? 8 I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs. 9 "So 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 who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.

In Luke 11:1-13, Jesus is teaching us how to pray. One for the first things we should learn about prayer is that it is based on our relationship with God. Creation and our conscience declare to us that there is a God in heaven. That there is a Designer behind the design. But we need more than an intellectual knowledge of God, we need a relationship with Him. Because sin has separated us from God, we are empty inside our souls without this relationship.

Religion of any kind cannot fill this void. Matter of fact, it is a false substitute that often keeps us from knowing God personally. We are deceived into thinking that because we have a religion and go to church, preforming ceremonies and rituals, and doing good humanitarian deeds for others that this should satisfy God and give us entrance to heaven. But if we are honest and admit it, we are still empty inside and know that something is missing.

Jesus makes it very clear in John 14:6, that He is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and that no one can come to the Father except through Him.” Now my friend, either Jesus is Who He said He is, or as C.S. Lewis said, "Christ either deceived mankind by conscious fraud, or He was Himself deluded and self-deceived, or He was Divine.” In his book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis famously said, “Jesus is either a lunatic, a liar, or Lord.”

Lewis chose to believe that Jesus is Divine, and I do too.

Religion of any kind never saved anyone, only Jesus can. His very name means Savior (Matthew 1:21). He is the Perfect Lamb of God Who came to take away the sin of the world (John 1:29). In 1 Peter 1:18-19, Scripture makes it very clear that traditional religion with its ceremonies and rituals cannot pay the price for our sin or remove it from us. “Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”

In the above passage in Luke 11:5-10, right after Jesus speaks of our relationship with “Our Father”, He tells the story of a friend, who had a hungry friend without “bread”, who on his journey has come to him at midnight. But he knew he also had a “Friend”, Who had plenty of bread. As we said yesterday, for sure this story is teaching us the “persistence of prayer” that is needed to receive God’s provisions. But I also believe it also teaches us another great lesson on about “Praying for Bread for our friends”.

We have friends who are on their journey of life, and it has become “midnight” for their soul. They are hungry, thirsty, tired, weary, empty, frustrated, unfulfilled, maybe confused, lost and looking for help. They have come to us and are asking for help. We realize we don’t have anything to give them. Jesus said, “Without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). But we know we have a Friend, Jesus, Who is the “Bread of Life” and we can ask Him to supply this “Bread” for our friend who is weary and hungry.

At least four times in John 6, Jesus proclaims that He is the “Bread of Life”. “And Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst” (v. 35). “The Jews then complained about Him, because He said, "I am the bread which came down from heaven" (v. 41). “I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world" (vv. 48-51).

Have you been praying for this “Bread” to give to your friends who are seeking for life? Maybe this is also why Jesus taught us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread”, not only for ourselves, but for our friends who desperately need Jesus, not a religion.

God bless!