Bold and shameless: our attitude to prayer matters

You know those requests people make that make you jump back a bit, in shock or in disgust, and leave you thinking '“Corr the audacity!” or make you say out loud “You what?!”

Perhaps you’ve lent someone a couple of quid and they refuse to pay you back.. but then a few weeks down the line they ask to borrow more money.. the audacity?!

Maybe you’ve asked for the whole world to be at peace and to turn to Jesus in repentance, before 2026 is here...

Or maybe in the lead up to the appointment of a new Archbishop of Canterbury, you asked the Lord to put a faithful complementarian evangelical in that role despite the odds..

Bold and shameless!

Well, that’s the exact attitude we’re called to in our prayer lives - that’s what the Father wants from us in our prayers..

In Luke 11, we see Jesus say: “Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’  And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’  I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.

Believe it or not, life today is very different from the 1st century Middle-Eastern world, especially here in London where I minister.

We have 24 hour supermarkets, off-licenses open till 2am, Uber delivery groceries in 15 mins if needed etc.. so it’d be very unlikely to have someone knock on our door at midnight just to ask for a loaf of Hovis..

But say they did. Say they woke us up at midnight for a loaf of Hovis (or sourdough, if you prefer), that’d be a very bold thing to do! Especially if it would disturb everyone in the household - which is exactly what would’ve happened in the culture of the day here, and how houses were structured: pretty much a one-room setup, and all the family sleeping next to each other!

And bread wasn’t as readily available on this day as it is for us now, and the culture of the day also required hosts to show hospitality to their guests, even if they pop in so suddenly in the middle of the night.. meaning the host had no choice but to make this bold request to his friend next door.

Jesus tells us this parable, because He wants us to mirror this boldness in our prayer lives!

And what was it that got the friend next door to answer the bold request? Their friendship? Nope.

It was because of the shameless audacity the host had in coming to him, that he answered the request.

And Jesus is letting us know here that the Father wants us to have this shameless audacity in coming to Him with our prayers.

We’re His children - He doesn’t want us being shy or awkward, assuming He won’t answer.

We are to keep praying those big bold prayers, like for the world to be at peace and for all to repent and come to Jesus before the new year; for the Church of England to have a faithful Archbishop again, and do away with unbiblical things like LLF.

However! Jesus isn’t teaching either that the more bolder and shameless a prayer is, then the more likely it’ll be answered.

And we also know that prayers won’t always be answered in the way we want, or with the timing we want. And sometimes prayers might not be answered at all, for our own good! (Romans 8:28 is a good example).

But nonetheless, big bold prayers, asked with shameless audacity, is what God the Father wants from us.. and don’t worry, He isn’t responding with “corr, the audacity!” .. “you what?!” .. or “how dare you!”

So, it’s great to be asking ourselves, do we have this attitude in our prayer lives? If not, well what might be stopping us?

Brothers and sisters, may we be able to step in and rejoice in the freedom we have been given to be bold and approach the Father in prayer, all thanks to the cross of Christ. For His glory - Amen!

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Darren Nardoni serves as an Assistant Minister at St John's Chelsea on the World's End Estate, London, and is currently an ordinand with AMiE

Views expressed in blogs published by the Latimer Trust are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Latimer Trust.