When You Pray...

 

Text: Luke 11:1-13

Focus: prayer

Function: to build faith

11:¹He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” ²So he said to them, “When you pray, say:

Father, may your name be revered as holy.
    May your kingdom come.
3     Give us each day our daily bread.
4     And forgive us our sins,
        for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.
    And do not bring us to the time of trial.”

⁵And he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, ⁶for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.’ ⁷And he answers from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ ⁸I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything out of friendship, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.

⁹“So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. ¹⁰For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. ¹¹Is there anyone among you who, if your child asked for a fish, would give a snake instead of a fish? ¹²Or if the child asked for an egg, would give a scorpion? ¹³If you, then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

Good morning to the beloved of God!

Today, we are going to look at what is called The Lord’s Prayer from the other gospel, the gospel of Luke.

It is shorter than the one from Matthew which we recite. I don’t believe it makes a difference, the authors choose what to include based on how they wanted to emphasize the important aspects of the prayer.

The prayer is an archetype for us as an example of the items for which it is proper for us to pray.

Let me explain that. The book of Psalms, is a book of songs, many of which were prayers. And we can get an idea of what ancients prayed for when we read the book of Psalms.

There are different kinds of prayers in the book. There are what is known as petitionary prayers, which are prayers when we are asking for help for ourselves or our loved ones. There are intercessory prayers whereby we pray for others instead of ourselves. And there are imprecatory prayers where we ask God to get revenge on our behalf.

So, the disciples are asking Jesus what practices are appropriate for them when they are praying.

Since Jesus commanded us to love our enemies, and to bless those who curse us, and to return kindness instead of evil, we do not practice the imprecatory, or “get even” prayers.

So that leaves us with intercessory or petitionary prayers. And this is an example of a petitionary prayer. I love the way that Jesus explains the prayer because it builds our faith and helps us to rest in the love of God for us.

The prayer starts out honoring the name of God and their kingdom on earth. It is an acknowledgment of God’s in our lives and our desire to live for God.

This is important. It is a recommitment of our baptismal vows to thrive by the power of the Spirit in our lives as we live to bring about God’s justice and kindness in this world through the power of the Spirit working in our lives.

That line: “Thy kingdom come” is us begging God to bring God’s justice and peace to this broken world and our desire to help make it happen through God’s power in our lives.

So he starts out with surrender to God and then the first petition, Give us our daily bread.

This is important as well. It is a surrender by faith to trust in God for God’s provision in our lives.

It is contrary to the worldly system of trusting in our money to protect us. Money is important and necessary, but our confidence is in God who promises to provide for us.

It is a surrender to live by faith and it gives us the power to be generous with what God has given us since we believe that God is the one who provides for us. We are not afraid to be generous because God gives back.

And then we get to the line about being forgiven based on our willingness to forgive others.

This is where the two accounts from and Matthew and Luke differ. Matthew chooses to mention Jesus explaining the absolute importance of forgiveness in his account, and Luke chooses to explain the power of God’s love for us in his account.

And in keeping with that theme of God’s love for us, Luke ends the prayer with the petition to be protected from trials.

I am glad for that. It is okay, he answers the disciples to pray for your personal needs and for your safety.

As I mentioned, Luke chooses to emphasize God’s parental love for us in his explanation of the prayer. Luke is emphasizing that Love wins in the end.

But before he gets there, I he goes back to the times of trials that we have in our lives. And we need to be praying about these things. We pray that God will deliver us.

It is important to remember that trials are going to come.

Being a Christian does not mean that we have a magic button to spare us from tribulation.

From this prayer, I see that God is present in our suffering. Jesus is our example. Jesus suffered and died because of the evil present in this world. God didn’t spare him, instead, God gave him the strength to endure and resurrected him from death. God strengthens us as well.

In the end, God’s love for us wins but in the midst of trials, our faith is tested and we wonder. During those times, Jesus tells us to keep on persisting in prayer.

I don’t believe it is to be selfish. I don’t believe it is intended to change the heart of God. Prayer helps us to surrender to faith in God’s provision for us in the midst of trials.

So, he tells them to persist in prayer and then he gives to us the promise that God hears prayer and loves us and responds to our prayers with the love the God has for us.

Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you shall find, and knock and the door will be opened are the promises Jesus gives to us.

God is in control and will provide God’s way through the trial. Remember, we start out praying to God to let Their plans come true as we pray that God’s justice will change the world.

So it is important for me to remember that God has called us to be the light shining in the darkness. God has called us to be the blessing of God to the world. God has called us to bring about God’s love and peace to the brokenness of this world.

And God is with us to bring about God’s plan through us because of God’s love for us.

So, when you pray, know that God loves you.