Favor or Need?

Luke 11:9-10
"So I say to you, ask , and it will be given to you; seek , and you will find; knock , and it will be opened to you.10 For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened."
Many of us see this passage as a promise by God that He will answer our prayers. All that's required is that we ask, right? We comfort ourselves and protect our faith in God by saying that
unanswered prayers must be because because God knows better, or it's
just that everything is answered in His time... which is not our own. When something great happens to us or we are wanting something great from the Lord, we call this His favor. This word and this passage has always somewhat puzzled me, and sort of
left a bad taste in my mouth when people would quote this verse when
requesting favor from our Lord.
Favor seems to be a favorite word for those who believe in the Prosperity Doctrine myth which is another reason that I haven't been too keen on this word.
I wanted tackle this passage once and for all in order to truly
understand exactly what this was saying. I was sort of sort of
surprised with the result, and came away with much more than what I was
expecting. Thoughts: This passage is within the context of Christ giving instruction on how to pray. Preceding this passage Jesus gives us an illustration about a
friend who asks his friend for a loaf of bread, a favor. His buddies are coming in from
out of town and he doesn't have have any bread to feed them
To ask for a favor from a friend is asking for a cup of sugar because you were right in the middle of baking something and you just ran out. A favor for a friend is holding a ladder in place while he's cleaning out the gutters. A request for a favor is simple
and doesn't require much from the person asking or the one who
is asked. A favor can be just as easily dismissed as it is requested.
If we're simply asking for a favor, then we really don't need what we're asking for... we're simply asking for something extra that might make things easier.
Asking for a need is much different than asking for a favor isn't it? Asking for a need would be if your friend came over and asked for
food because his family was starving... Asking for a need would be to
ask a friend for money in order to allow you to pay the mortgage this
month. These are NEEDS! By putting it into this perspective we understand that to request a need requires a much heavier commitment on both parties. For this reason, needs are not easy to ask for or to give. Asking for a need often shames and humbles the person asking. The one asking has to admit that they're incapable of providing for themselves something you may have in abundance. Sometimes we may not know the difference between a favor and a need. Simply stated; A rich man who asks for money is asking for a favor, a poor man asking for food is asking for a need. A person who asks you to 'come along' with them and their friends is asking for a favor. A person asking for your company is often in need of a friend.
God makes it clear that He will provide for your needs. He also makes it clear that we should pray fervently for Him to fulfill our needs. This is how He teaches us pray, and He says He will answer our prayers. "...how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?"
~ Luke 11:13

When we pray to God, are we following His instructions and praying out of need or are we just asking for a favor?

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God, Favor, Need, Holy Spirit, Lord, Jesus

The Marriage Zipper

A Zipper discloses the consummate partner

Their conversing divides honor the other

Exposed while apart they yearn for the further

They conceive of the day when their sides clasp together

Their handler upraises to align one another

They converge to embrace and fasten together

While embraces ascend their clasps leave their stream

Their history of embraces transforms the seam.

From two distinct pieces to one flowing line

No longer divided, a love so sublime

Intertwined now as one, they reach for the skies

Marriage, the last alteration, in the grand tailor's eyes...

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Everlasting Love

The best way to identify something is to know its description first, right? Frustration can be defined by searching for something without knowing what you're looking for. To define Love seems as subjective and elusive as to define the meaning of life.

Endless song’s, sonnets, books, movies, cards and quotes have been created in hopes of describing love. The "love industry" sets to try to describe love, and this is an industry that will seemingly last forever just the same as marriages will inevitably end. Still, we are in in search of the love found in Hosea 2:19-20 as it says.

"I will take you to be My wife forever. I will take you to be My wife in righteousness, justice, love, and compassion. I will take you to be My wife in faithfulness..."

We have so many types of love that sometimes it seems that love is just a subjective phrase. We may have a favorite food and we'll describe our feeling as love.... but we know we're looking for love greater than this from our partner here on earth. We love our friends and even some neighbors, but we know we require more.

Without knowing how to define love objectively, we're left up to our subjective feelings to define this most important word. Of course, we know that feelings are based on emotion and emotions can change in a snap. Does it seem reckless than to commit our lives to someone based on a feeling? No wonder why half of all marriages end in divorce. Our love for another cannot be defined by a feeling.

If love isn't a feeling, and we can't define it objectivily, how are we to ever know what True Love is?

The Greek language contains five words to describe the different ways we love. The words in Greek are:

Thelma, means DESIRE or attraction. This is the desire to take action, to DO something.

Eros, Erotas, Phelia, Storage and Agape. These words help us to define what complete love is, as they're defined below.

Eros, is passionate love, with sensual desire and longing.

Erotas ~ means "romantic love." Although eros requires a desire or thelma to be felt for a person, it becomes an appreciation of the beauty within that person, or even becomes appreciation of beauty itself. Because this love involves so much emotion, eros has the greatest ability to be, or cause the most confusion. This is most often confused with lust, as the feelings are very similar. Lust however is derived from the Greek word "porneo" in which we also have derived the word "pornography". "Porneo" literally means to become so overcome with feelings that you are turning away from God.

Phelia ~ means FRIENDSHIP. This transcends the other requirements of love by requiring loyalty, virtue, equality and familiarity. Friendship needs to be about something; a desire or enjoyment of an activity or thought or humor, etc…

Storage ~ means AFFECTION, which is a fondness through familiarity. This is the type of love found among families or any other sense of kinship with another. This love is the most natural as this can also be associated as “blind” or unconditional love because it doesn’t require a “value” like friendship requires.

Agape ~ means LOVE. This is the highest form of love, but by itself still doesn’t define true love. This is a feeling of being content or holding one in high regard. Agape is self-sacrificing, giving love to all--both friend and enemy.

Complete love is all of these loves combined. This love is defined by how God loves us.

God never says "the Love of another will last forever".
Our love on Earth will surly end as we vow to another "till death do us part".
Unfortunately we find it difficult to even love this long.
God does promise us that His love will be everlasting.

As Hosea ends, it says "...and you will know THE LORD"

When you surrender to The Lord, you are married to Him forever.