The passage I read
was Luke 11:1-13
You can find that passage here:
The verse that most
stood out to me:
1 One
day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his
disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his
disciples.”
As I reflect:
Today I reflected on
and modified some old notes from a sermon I heard. I think they still very much apply today and
I will use them for my reflection.
Luke 11:1
Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that
one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also
taught his disciples.”
So in verse 1, the Lord is praying and His
desciples come to Him and ask Him to teach them. Our Christian walk is all about this. We are desiring to learn the will of the Lord
and apply it to our lives and there are those that descipling after us with the
same desire to apply the Lord’s will to their lives. We are descipling our children as well . This disciple could have come to Jesus and
asked Him to teach them to do miracles or feed the many but they he instead
that this is where the power really begins.
If Our Savior fell to His knees to speak to the Father, should we not
also place as high a level of importance on this practice? Allow the Lord to stir this on your heart
today. Spend time in prayer and grow a
hunger for this in your life.
Luke 11:2
So He said to them, “When you pray, say:
Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be
done On earth as it is in heaven.
When you think about the "list of
rules" that we as Christians have, you have to at some point realize it
just can't be done without Jesus. We
cannot do what has been asked of us without a relationship with our God. Prayer is that. Prayer is part of your relationship. It is the conversation of your relationship
with God. Think about the start of the
prayer and just how personal saying, "Our Father" is. Think about the roles of a father. They protect, provide, train, instruct,
discipline, comfort, guide, and so much more.
This is personal.
Romans 8:15
For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received
the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.”
Abbas is translated as
"daddy". Think about that.
Galatians
4:6 And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into
your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!”
Now in Matthew 6 we see also the importance
of the location of God. He rules and
reigns. Our problems can be overwhelming
to us because we are in them, but stop and think about where He is and His
perspective on our problems.
Matthew
6:9 In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your
name.
Also, note that we are beginning by
remembering how holy the person we are speaking to is. He is hallowed and His kingdom is going to
come.
Daniel
7:27 Then the kingdom and dominion, And the greatness of the kingdoms under the
whole heaven, Shall be given to the people, the saints of the Most High. His
kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, And all dominions
shall serve and obey Him.’
And then in Luke 17 we are also told that
this kingdom is within us now.
Luke
17:21 nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of
God is within you.”
We are then reminded in our approach that we
are not living for nor seeking in any way our will, but rather we are living
for God's will to be done through us.
“Your
will be done On earth as it is in heaven.”
This living for someone else's will is
difficult for many of us because we spend a lifetime in a world that teaches us
to live for ourselves, but we are not asked to live for the will of someone
whom we don't know is worthy or not. We are to live for the will of the One we can
trust with every aspect of our life. HE
IS TRUSTWORTHY. Now this first portion
of prayer has been upwards and we come to the part where we can pray openly
before Him about the daily needs. Ours
and others.
Luke 11:3
Give us day by day our daily bread.
Daily bred – not just food, not just reading
the word of God, but all of our daily needs here. He already knows them, but lay them before
the Lord anyway. Pray for other’s daily
bread here too.
Then we come to confession. Think about this part. Sin affects our
closeness to God. It affects our
relationship.
Luke 11:4
And forgive us our sins, For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one.”
In Psalm 32 we hear the result of David
hardening his heart and keeping silent about his sin. He had to confess to keep the very life from
being sucked out of him.
Psalm
32:3-5 When I kept silent, my bones grew old Through my groaning all the day
long. For day and night Your hand was
heavy upon me; My vitality was turned into the drought of summer. Selah I
acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, “I will
confess my transgressions to the Lord,” And You forgave the iniquity of my sin.
Selah
So turn to the Lord in your prayer life and confess
and receive forgiveness and also forgive others.
Do not be bitter and unforgiving. You are not entitled to be unforgiving. Do not allow the 1000 reasons we can all
think of not to forgive become a priority over being warm hearted and
loving. Be forgiving and release
whatever you have held on to against others. Be freed from that stronghold. We not only see the plea for deliverance from
sin but also (knowing that we are in a spiritual battle), We pea for and trust
the Lord to fight with us and for us in this battle. Ask for deliverance from the enemies
advances.
Now in looking at this prayer you may note
how short and basic and to the point it is.
This is a great model to follow.
Make it personal to you. You
don't have to pray for hours on end to effectively communicate with God. Though there's nothing wrong
Luke
11:5-8 And He said to them, “Which of
you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend,
lend me three loaves; for a friend of
mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and he will answer from within and say, ‘Do
not trouble me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I
cannot rise and give to you’? I say to
you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet
because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs.
Put this into real life application with how
you seek God. Be persistent. Think about it, the man in the story listens
to his friend not because he was a friend but because he was so persistent
(perhaps even annoying.. LOL) but how
much greater does the Lord desire to hear us and answer our prayers as his
children who are diligently seeking after His will in our life?
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.
For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who
knocks it will be opened.
Keep asking. Keep knocking and seeking. But don't by any means take a "name it
and claim it" stance. Just because
you are persistent doesn't mean you will get everything you pray for. There is a structure to understand; a motive;
a reason behind the request that is know by our Father.
Luke
11:11-13 If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a
stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent
instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an
egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If
you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much
more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those
who ask Him!”
Be pure in motive seeking after His
will. Know that we have a good and
loving Father with good interest in mind.
Romans
8:32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how
shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
My response to the Lord:
Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom
come. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for
we also forgive everyone who sins against us .And lead us not into temptation.
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