When your Friend says ‘No’

Sunday 9 August
READ: Luke 11:5-10
MORE LESSON: Luke 18:1-7

There are three lessons to learn about relationships from the Scripture reading today.

1. Getting answers to requests from dear friends may not be instant. Although true friends are not known to refuse to grant one another's requests in very difficult circumstances, the passage reveals that there could be times when dear friends could be at crossroads in attending to needs. Which of you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him'; 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'? (vs. 5-11). Let it be registered in your heart this day that there could be times in your life that dear friends may neither come out to see you nor even refuse to open their doors to let you in. When such happens, you must manage the situation with wisdom. At such times some people may easily get discouraged and go away angrily to tell others nasty stories about their friends. Others may react by destroying the relationship or plan vengeance against their friend.

2. This passage shows us the way to get as much as you want from a friend who is reluctant to grant you your request. Sometimes you carry other people’s burdens in the way the friend in this passage did in order to meet the need of a friend to his friend who visited at an odd hour. The desire to meet his friend’s need, moved him to go to another friend who answered from within, and gave excuses. What do you do when you are humiliated for a good deed you sought to do for someone? Do you give it up or refrain from doing the good? What extent can you go in pursuing other people's needs even when you are being insulted?

3. When this friend was refused his request at first instance, he did not give up. He did not consider his friend's remark as insolence; he stood there knocking and pleading. Jesus thereafter remarked: 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: Luke 11:8.

When you persist on your request, you will get as much as you need. Whatever you may not get based on relationships is made very possible when you persist. Know for sure that the toughest of men will give in to your request in the face of persistence. This was the message Jesus passed across in Luke 18:1-5. Next time someone says, ‘no’ to your critical request, don't be perturbed, rude, frustrated, or compromise; only be persistent in righteousness. As Jesus admonished in Lk. 11:9-10, I also say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.

Prayer/Action
* Lord, help me to persist in righteousness until my answer comes.
* Father, help me to be a true friend who stands for others in their critical hour of need.

PROPHETIC PRAYER
This month, every power in custody of my original glory and every thief of glory shall surrender them by fire, in the name of Jesus.