The disciples see Jesus praying and ask him how to pray. Jesus provides a shortened version of the Lord's prayer found in the Sermon on the Mount.
Jesus then discusses general principles of prayer. He uses the analogy that people give good things. To each other, even though their motives are not always the best.
For instance, someone comes knocking late at night and needs emergency bread to host guests. The neighbor will give the bread to the neighbor, not for respect or love, but because of the boldness of the nighttime request. Likewise, fathers give their children food when they are hungry.
If one considers these human principles of giving, Jesus asks how much more will God give us what we need? Christ lays out a few other principles:
- ask and you shall receive
- seek and you shall find
However, this does not mean that God is a genie that we can summon for anything we want. Far from it. The very end of the passage tells us what Jesus is talking about - God will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask.
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