You might recall this odd little scenario Jesus puts to his disciples as part of His response to a request to teach them how to pray in Luke chapter 11:
5Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose one of you goes to his friend at midnight and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, 6because a friend of mine has come to me on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him.’
7And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Do not bother me. My door is already shut, and my children and I are in bed. I cannot get up to give you anything.’
8I tell you, even though he will not get up to provide for him because of his friendship, yet because of the man’s persistence, he will get up and give him as much as he needs.
9So I tell you: Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. 10For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
In commenting on this passage, Robert Capon offers the following in his book The Foolishness of Preaching:
"When the friend outside shows up, the One inside refuses to give him the bread he's asking for. Radical peculiarity here: God, apparently, has a thing for saying no before he says yes. But it isn't so peculiar after all: he reveals the law before he reveals grace; he meets Nicodemus at night and gives him riddles, not understanding - and he refuses the world's endless requests for signs and gives it the darkness of the whale's belly and of the sealed tomb." (65)
It's like God is asking, "How serious are you?"
Or perhaps it is a matter of us needing to learn or experience something before He can give a proper "yes".
Either way, I have noticed this before in my own life.
Have you seen it too?
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