In For the Long Run? #2

Ron Simkins – February 11, 2025 1 Comment

Today’s blog contribution comes from Ron Simkins. He reminds us of Jesus’ challenge to us to “keep on” in our seeking of God’s presence in our lives. May this reading challenge and encourage you today! –Melissa Logsdon, NCF Associate Pastor

In my first essay in this series “In for the Long Run,” we were challenged to wrestle with Jesus’ encounter with a church theologian. The theologian wanted Jesus to commit to a one-time act that would put him (us) “right with God” concerning how we respond to our “neighbor.” Jesus, in his amazing way of reframing the question, ended up challenging the theologian to understand that God calls us to an ongoing life pattern in relating to our neighbor. This is especially true when the “neighbor” needs our support to become empowered again.

In this essay, I want to explore with you another challenge from Jesus to “keep on keeping on” in our relationship with God. But first a couple of important personal notes.

First, I trust that Jesus is right in promising that God is a merciful, compassionate God who is more than willing to forgive when we are truthful about our need for forgiveness. If I did not, I would find these teachings of Jesus to be terrifying. I have, and do, often fail to live up to them fully.

Second, both of these initial essays in this series depend on translating the koine Greek of the New Testament a bit differently than many of our English translations. So, it is important for me to be clear. I am not claiming to be a better Greek scholar than most Bible translators. I am not even close. I once was a good deal more proficient as a translator than I am now. My choice to pastor in New Covenant rather than accept a position in a seminary slowly moved me away from almost daily use of the koine Greek language. But I can still slowly work through it when it seems important. 

My point here is that the translating information that I am using in this essay (and the previous one) can be substantiated by you quite easily. Just use almost any internet search engine, and ask about translating the aorist and present tenses in koine Greek. I think the reason translators often do not push the difference is that it can make the translation a bit more awkward at times. I hope the other reason isn’t that the implications are not considered that important. They seem to me to reflect a major message of the entire Bible—keep on keeping on in our relationship with God.

LUKE 11

The passage below occurs in the context of Jesus giving his followers a prayer model that has come to be called the “Lord’s prayer” or the “Our Father.” That prayer structure is then followed by a great illustrative story using the common Rabbinic form of “If this, then how much more this!” If a neighbor who is a jerk will finally respond to persistent asking, seeking, and knocking, how much more a good “father/abba.” Jesus then gives us a pattern of behavior and a major goal for our prayer lives. 

Luke 11:9-13

9 So I say to you, keep on asking, and it will be given to you ; keep on seeking, and you will find; keep on knocking, and the door will be opened for you.
10 For everyone who keeps on asking keeps on receiving; and everyone who keeps on seeking keeps on finding; and for everyone who keeps on knocking, the door keeps on being opened.

11 Is there anyone here among you who, if your child will ask for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish?
12 Or if the child will ask for an egg, will give a scorpion? 

13 If you then, who are evil (compared to God/rs), know how to keep on giving good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father keep on giving the Holy Spirit to those who keep on asking!” 

God seems delighted for us to ask for specific concerns. God sometimes says “Yes” to these prayer requests. But, we also get “No” and “Wait and See” for answers to these specific requests. Jesus received a huge “No” to one of his most heart-felt prayers—“If it is possible, let this cup pass from me.” Paul says he prayed intensely three times for God to remove some ailment or personal temptation, and finally received the answer—“Don’t ask anymore. I am already doing enough for you” (my paraphrase of 2 Corinthians 12:9).

Personally, I can attest that one of the most gracious answers to a persistent prayer that I ever prayed was a “No.” Unfortunately, I resisted the “No” at first—partly ignorance, but partly pride—and consequently hurt someone who did not deserve the hurt. Still the “No” ultimately turned out to be gracious to us both. In my life it freed me to receive another incredibly gracious gift that changed my entire life. That will have to be a story for another time.

Jesus says that there is one prayer God will always answer “Yes” if we wait long enough to see the answer come —if we keep asking and seeking and knocking for more of God’s presence in our life—we will receive a “Yes from Abba”! Matthew recorded Jesus saying that God would finally always give us “good.” Luke wants it to be clear that the “good” we will always get as an answer to “keeping on keeping on” in our relationship with God is what God considers the greatest “good”—more of God in our lives. 

Paul revisits this promise in Romans 8:14-39 and 12:1-2. He uses both “good” and “Spirit” to be sure we understand. And, he too casts it all in terms of persistently seeking God in our bent and broken world. Again, maybe a topic for another time.

I close again with a similar question to the one that closed the first essay in this series. What growth might occur if I, if you, if we together, moved away from wanting quick, easy, answers to our prayers, and instead “keep on asking, seeking, and knocking” in our pursuit of more of God’s presence in our lives—individually, and as a community of Jesus followers? What might we “find?” What might be “given?” What “door” might be opened?” Are we in for the long run?–Ron Simkins, NCF Pastor Emeritus