Seven of you, chairs in a circle, mugs going cold on the arms.
It starts on your left because it always starts on your left. The man who has been off work says the thing about his back and you can tell he has been waiting all week to say it out loud to somebody who will not flinch. Then the woman who is worried about her daughter, and she cries a bit, and nobody rushes her. Then the young couple. Then the man who never says much and tonight says quite a lot.
And you are good at this. You genuinely are. You ask the one question that gets underneath it. You remember what he said three weeks ago. You are not performing and you are not filling silence, you are actually listening, and when you pray for them at the end you pray with real weight and everybody in that circle knows it.
And then it gets to you.
And you smile and you say, I am fine, honestly. Pray for the others.
And somebody says, are you sure, and you say yes, and the circle moves on, and it is not awkward for anybody except for about four seconds inside your own chest.
There is a thing in your bag you did not say. There has been a thing in your bag for about a year.
Now, listen to me before anything else, because I know you.
I am not catching you out.
There is nothing here to be ashamed of and nothing you should have sorted years ago. I have not spotted a fault. What you did for that man tonight was real ministry and God was in it and it will hold him through Wednesday.
I am saying I saw the four seconds. That is all. I have sat in that chair myself.
The three verbs
Look at what Jesus says, and then look at how simple He keeps it.
And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.Luke 11:9
Three verbs, and all three of them belong to the person doing the wanting. Ask. Seek. Knock. Not qualify, not deserve, not wait until the queue clears.
And notice what is not in the sentence. There is no clause about who else in the room needs it more. There is no rota. Jesus does not say ask, unless somebody in your small group has a worse week than you, in which case wait.
So let me turn and say it straight to you, because in that circle you are the one nobody gets to speak over.
You are one of the askers. Not one day, not when this settles, not after everybody else has had their turn. Right now, with your mug gone cold and a thing still in your bag, you are inside the first verb of that verse, and it was written for the person who wants something rather than for the person who has earned something. I am not putting an opinion over you. That is what is written, and it is the Holy Spirit who carries a written line down onto a real person in a real chair.
Now, why do you pass?
I have thought about this for years, and about myself, and I do not think it is humility. Humility does not feel like that in the chest.
I think it is that somewhere along the line you became the safe one. The one who does not need much. And that role gets rewarded, quietly and constantly, by everyone around you, and once a man has been the safe one for long enough he starts to believe that the room only works while he is empty.
That is not sin. That is what happens to somebody who has been useful for a long time and never once been the reason a circle went quiet.
But look at the shape of what Jesus says next, because He builds it exactly the way a father would.
He talks about a son asking his father for bread. He talks about ordinary parents who know how to give good things. He never once talks about a queue.
And take this in, because it is already decided rather than pending. You have the same standing in that circle that the man with the back has. Not less. Not staff. The word says ask and it shall be given, and the giving in that sentence is not rationed by how much anybody else in the room is carrying, and His Spirit does not check who has been strongest lately before He carries a request.
Your turn is not taken from theirs. That is the arithmetic you have been doing, and it is wrong. There is no fixed amount of God in that living room.
So we are going to take your turn.
Not close down the circle, not stop asking the question that gets underneath it. That is a real gift and it is yours and God is in it.
We are just going to say the thing that has been in your bag for a year, out loud, once.
If it comes out badly, expect it, and do not read it as failure. It has been a long time since you started a sentence about yourself in a room with the chairs in a circle.
So hear it said over you before you say it. You are permitted to ask, and the permission is not a favor anybody in that room grants you; Luke 11 was written long before this small group, and the Holy Spirit is the one who brings what is written and sets it down in a real chest, in a real chair, on a real Tuesday evening.
And nothing has to feel different for this to be true. This is not about producing an emotion with a cold mug in your hand. It is about a man who wants something doing the one thing the verse actually asks, which is asking.
Declare this over yourself
Say these over your own name. You are in Christ and Christ is in you, and that has been true on every night you said pass; the authority in these words is His, delegated to you and carried in His Name, and it is His Spirit who makes what is written live in a real mouth. And however He answers about the thing in your bag, and He answers in His own way and His own manner, you are inside the promise the whole time He is doing it.
- Reflex that says pass, you are not consideration for anybody, and you do not speak for me tonight. The word of God says ask and it shall be given, and there is no clause in it about waiting until the room is empty.
- Arithmetic that says my turn comes out of theirs, you are wrong and I am done with you, in the name of Jesus. The Holy Spirit is not a fixed amount divided seven ways in a front room, and I am not rationing what He never rationed.
- Father, You know what has been in my bag for a year and You have never once been irritated that I did not say it. It is written that the one who asks receives, so I am asking You out loud tonight, and I am taking my turn.
Luke 11:9
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