Only when I pray is a short series of thought-provoking reflections based loosely around the theme of prayer as found in Luke 11:1-13.

Today’s supplementary reading is taken from John 15:5-9

“I am the Vine and you are the branches. Get your life [everything you need] from Me. Then I will live in you and you will give [produce] much fruit. You can do nothing without Me. If anyone does not get his life from Me, he is cut off like a branch and dries up. Such branches are gathered and thrown into the fire and they are burned. [But] If you get your life from Me and My Words live in you, ask whatever you want. It will be done for you. When you give [produce] much fruit, My Father is honoured. This shows you are My followers. I have loved you just as My Father has loved Me. Stay in My love.”  New Life Version

“I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you’re joined with me and I with you, the relationship intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can’t produce a thing. Anyone who separates from me is deadwood, gathered up and thrown on the bonfire. But if you make yourselves at home with me and my words are at home in you, you can be sure that whatever you ask will be listened to and acted upon. This is how my Father shows who he is—when you produce grapes, when you mature as my disciples. I’ve loved you the way my Father has loved me. Make yourselves at home in my love.” The Message

So here we are nearing the end of our devotions in and around Luke 11:1-13. Today starts the final three reflections which I will refer to as the “keep on…” set. Keep on asking, keep on looking and keep on knocking.

Did you ever as a child ask your mother, “Can I have…?” this or that. Perhaps it was a toy, a bag of sweets, maybe a new outfit – but with your mother keeping on saying, “No,” no matter how long you harped on about it. Maybe your mother said, “I’ll tell you what you’ll get if you don’t stop asking!!!” That was usually enough to do it for most of us, wasn’t it.

Human parents aren’t very patient – no, wait! Perhaps that’s not fair of me to say because I am, I believe, a patient parent myself – but when it comes to the relentlessness of a child who is “good” at asking who doesn’t understand the meaning of the word no after the umpteenth time, then I’m as patient as the next parent. In truth, thankfully my kids weren’t like that. But I’ve seen others. Sometimes they pop up in supermarkets; that persistent child embarrassing their parent who continually asks for something is akin to a dripping tap – it wears the parent down eventually and bingo, the child now knows the parents “tipping point” and has gained a learned behaviour which it will use for the rest of its life! And yet, persistent asking is precisely what the Lord advises us to do! Or is it?

Well, yes – but no! Not exactly. Not in the annoying way if we are asking for something ridiculous or for something that God won’t give us because it isn’t appropriate or good for us to have.

Let me surmise.

If we remain attached to the vine, as our reading from John 5 above illustrates that we should, then it is unlikely in the extreme that we are going to ask for something that falls into the ridiculous category. So, in my estimation, asking and receiving what we ask for, presupposes that we don’t ask from a position of being unattached to the vine for something ridiculous or that wouldn’t be good for us.

Listen to today’s song, Keep on asking.

Verse 1 hammers this point home – it’s not about greed, it’s gotta’ be for something you need - i.e. something that will be good for and advance your spiritual progress and development and help you produce fruit. Verse 2 goes on to say, when you know what that is, then nothing will stand in your way; you gotta’ ask what you need and keep on asking. And here’s the fascinating thing which is confirmed in the chorus, nothing will be held back, no limit, no reserve; you’ll get more than you deserve. True asking will be a from a heart of love and gratitude; something like, You have blessed me Lord and I thank You. To continue using me I need You to give me some more… Do you see what I mean?

This kind of true asking, the kind of asking that is meant and encouraged by these scriptures, will not require the compilation of any fancy words, phrases or recitation, it will come from your heart from a desire to do more for God.

As God’s grace then pours into your heart you will know the life that God has promised, abundant life – the kind that is promised in John 10:10

I am come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly. King James Version

Today’s main reading is about remaining in the vine and that convinces me that the branch (us) draws only from the vine (God) that which it needs in order to grow and produce more fruit - an abundance of fruit.

May our prayer life consist of persistence; persistence of the kind that is not like a dripping tap of inappropriate want, want, want… but may we indeed persistently keep on asking for that only which will advance our spiritual condition and help us to produce an abundance of fruit.