FOCUS Day Thirty-Three | Luke 11:1-13 by Abigail
DAY THIRTY-THREE | Luke 11:1-13 by Abigail
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 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.
Give us day by day our daily bread.
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.”
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.
“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. 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!”
God’s Plan for Prayer
Early in my walk with the Lord, I heard a sermon that made a profound impact on This prayer is at the foundation of how we should pray. But somehow I had let this prayer become common place and ordinary. Just something I should memorize until I could move past it, into a less simple and more advanced prayer.
I thought the best thing I could get out of Jesus’s lesson was to take bits and pieces and use them in my prayer. So I would use parts of the prayer in my everyday conversation with Jesus/God. In my thought that it was the beginner’s prayer, I moved on and very rarely thought about the prayer, and almost never the “One who knocks on the door, it shall be open to you.”
I actually forgot that it was in the same passage. One day, I had the realization that this entire passage I had made into head knowledge and that I was missing one of the best gifts and examples Jesus could possibly pray.
So I started re-learning how to pray. I am still on this journey by the way, and am finding out that I will probably always will be. Jesus will continually be teaching me and uncovering something new about prayer. So far in this process Jesus has been teaching me some amazing things about prayer.
Jesus has been expanding on some of the things the Holy Spirit has said to me in the past through His Word. Part of how He has been expanding this teaching is by showing me that it as one whole lesson, not three separated ideas.
I have been overcome by the fullness of this scripture! Jesus is giving us the ultimate gift of access. This gift is Him saying “Our Father” not “My Father”. Jesus is inviting us to join with Him as being children of Father God. He is offering this gift of access, and is teaching us how to speak with our Father.
Jesus has been showing me the importance of “Persistent Prayers”. I am learning the value and the blessing of them. My dad gave an example to our church family one Sunday of, “How many of you are glad that the first time you asked for a spouse God didn’t give it to you?” Every married person raised their hand, and many of the singles did as well.
Later as I thought about that example, I was confronted by what that really meant, and the value of being persistent really sunk in in that moment. I realized that if God had answered my prayers the very first time I asked (of let’s say a house for me and my parents or the ability to travel out of the country), two things probably would have happened.
1. I would most likely end up a like a (spiritually) spoiled little kid. Whenever I wanted anything, I would expect my dad to buy it for me. I probably wouldn’t have a super high value for what I had wanted. But if my father let me work by babysitting or mowing the lawn to earn enough money to get what I wanted, then I would probably have a much higher value for it.
2. Sometimes, God fulfilling my prayer right when I ask isn’t in line with the Father’s perfect plan, even if I think that the timing is right in that moment, it might not be. Jesus really wants to teach us the valuable lesson of knocking again and again.
I realized that part of why praying persistently was hard for me is that I was missing out on an important piece to God’s best plan for prayer. Jesus tells us that His Father doesn’t withhold gifts from His children. I had been feeling like God was holding something back, and it partly made me feel like I wasn’t getting the good gifts of the Father.
But Our Father doesn’t withhold any part Himself or the Holy Spirit. He gives them freely to us. It is part of God being a good Father, and being His child means that God gives us good gifts. God really doesn’t withhold any good gift, but the timing will be in accordance to His perfect plan, not to ours.
My prayer is that we can receive the fullness of this gift of prayer, that we can learn how to talk with our Father, pray “persistent prayers” and know that God only give good gifts. He doesn’t withhold anything from us.
