{"id":4786,"date":"2017-12-19T11:20:51","date_gmt":"2017-12-19T17:20:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedisciplemaker.org\/?p=4786"},"modified":"2017-12-19T11:20:51","modified_gmt":"2017-12-19T17:20:51","slug":"jesus-is-not-a-vending-machine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/2017\/12\/jesus-is-not-a-vending-machine\/","title":{"rendered":"Jesus Is Not A Vending Machine"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Prayer requires persistence.<\/strong>
\nIn the book of Luke, immediately after teaching the disciples to pray, Jesus says this:
\nSuppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, \u201cFriend, lend me three loaves of bread; a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.\u201d And suppose the one inside answers, \u201cDon\u2019t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can\u2019t get up and give you anything.\u201d I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.[1]<\/a>
\nThat\u2019s an amazing and frightening way to think about prayer: approaching God with shameless audacity!<\/strong>
\nThis is one of the stories Jesus tells that needs a bit of unpacking because most of us don\u2019t get visits from friends in the middle of the night. Back then, however, it was pretty common. If you had a long journey, you might start at dusk in order to avoid traveling while it was hot enough to crisp a camel. So if you made good time, you might show up while it was still night. But what about the next part, where the neighbor is like, \u201cWhy should I care about your little bread situation\u2014me and my whole family are in bed already!\u201d?
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\nThis makes me think of the insanity of the \u201cfamily bed.\u201d
\nThe other night my daughter Maranatha tapped me on the shoulder in the middle of the night.
\n\u201cDad, I had a bad dream.\u201d
\nI looked at my wife, who looked right back at me.
\n\u201cOkay, baby, you can climb in with us,\u201d I said.
\nShe snuggled in, and both she and my wife fell asleep a few minutes later. Which was sweet for a grand total of thirty seconds. Because once Maranatha was actually asleep, she turned diagonal, stuck her icy cold feet on my shins, and began to mutter. I loved it\u2014and absolutely didn\u2019t love it.
\nI picked her up like a sack of potatoes and carried her back to bed. She didn\u2019t wake up, praise God, and neither did my wife.
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\nIn the story Jesus tells, the whole family is in the same room, and the doors to that room\u2014which were the doors to the house\u2014were shut and locked. So the neighbor in our parable was basically saying, \u201cMan, if I open the door to get you your bread, then everyone in my house, including my kids, are gonna wake up .\u00a0.\u00a0. and I have a business meeting in the morning!\u201d
\nThat\u2019s why Jesus tells us to be persistent. Tenacious. Bold. Because he wants us to be the kind of people who don\u2019t give up on something\u2014or on him.
\nMost of us, when we pray about something that doesn\u2019t happen, we stop praying. And that\u2019s exactly why God doesn\u2019t usually answer our requests immediately. We know God isn\u2019t a cosmic vending machine, but a lot of times we act like he is.<\/strong> God knows our hearts and our natures, and he wants us to learn to seek after his heart. He wants us to become like Jesus, over time.
\nAnd just like that we\u2019re back at the bull\u2019s-eye: We need connection.<\/em>
\nThe spiritual connection we long for doesn\u2019t come from getting everything we want the second we want it. Rather, it happens as we grow in our relationship with God. The Bible uses a picture for that, borrowed from farming. Jesus says, \u201cAbide in me. .\u00a0.\u00a0. for apart from me you can do nothing.\u201d[2]<\/a>
\nConnection takes persistence. It takes patience and grit and even shameless audacity! But if our prayers have those qualities, we will deepen our relationship with God. Continually seeking God will continually shape us. We\u2019ll be searching the Bible and claiming promise after promise and praying with other believers. We\u2019ll be listening. And all the while we\u2019ll be looking more like Jesus .\u00a0.\u00a0. and becoming more satisfied with our spiritual connection.
\nNot to mention, the Bible tells us God\u2019s timing is different from ours. Persistence is how we sync God\u2019s time with our time.<\/strong>
\n[1]<\/a> Luke 11:5-8.
\n[2]<\/a> John 15:4-5, esv.<\/p>\n

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You’ve been reading Daniel Fusco’s Upward, Inward, Outward: Love God, Love Yourself, Love Others.<\/em> Daniel is an expert on illustrating how Jesus is at street level with you and me. In this book he unpacks how the greatest commandment Jesus gave us is to be lived out today. We only have one life, so we need to live the most meaningful life possible!
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