Good Father, Not Bad Friend

Yesterday I just finished a series of talks at Ovation Church about prayer titled, Teach Me To Pray. As I do most Mondays, I was replaying yesterday’s message in my head but I was also thinking over all the messages in the series. While each message was great (because of the Bible, not me), reflecting back, my favorite was the second Sunday, Teach Me To Pray – To The Father. Today I was reminded of the truth that MY God is like a good father, not a bad friend.

When Jesus’ disciples asked Him to teach them to pray, He told them a story about a guy who had unexpected company drop by but didn’t have any food to offer them. As you would expect in most small, close-nit communities, the guy goes to a friend’s house and asks to borrow some food. This was very common in the culture and each person Jesus was speaking to had probably experienced something similar – either asking or being asked. But as Jesus continues to tell the story, He says the friend refused to help because it was inconvenient. At this point, the crowd listening would have thought, “What a jerk of a friend! Who would do that?” But Jesus says that because of the guys boldness in asking, even this bad friend would give the food being asked of him.

Then Jesus asks the question, “How many of you being good fathers would give your child what they are asking for?” What loving dad would give his child a stone when they asked for bread? With this in mind, Jesus then asks, “How much MORE will your heavenly Father give to you?”

God is not like a bad friend that we have to annoy until they finally give us what we need. Jesus says God is like a good father!