Luke 11
Scripture
Luke 11
Focus Scripture: Luke 11: 2-4 KJV
“And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.”
Observation
What a powerful chapter. Here, Jesus himself reminded us of the power of prayer. Jesus reassures us that audacity and persistents in prayer works. He tells us that if we ask, it will be given to us. He reminds us that we are not an all knowing and all loving God, but we still know how to give good gifts to our children. If we can do this, how much more so can God?
These are powerful reminders of the faithfulness of God, but I can remember times in my life where I prayed earnestly for something believing these promises, and things still did not work out the way I wanted them to. So what gives? That brings us to today’s focus scripture. We all know it well. I assume most of us know it by heart. It’s the Lord’s Prayer. You see, in Luke 11, before Jesus gave us these wonderful assurances about the power of prayer, he first model how to pray for us. He tell us to first pray “Our Father who art in heaven, hollowed be your name”. This is to remind us when we start praying that God is in heaven. He has a perspective that we can never have. His ways are not our ways. He sees the big picture. Hallowed be your name. Here Jesus tells us to remember God’s glory in his name. Take time here to remember and tell God through prayer about all the gifts he has given and prayers he has answered in the past. This posture in prayer helps us remember who God is and what he is capable of. Then Jesus tells us to pray “Thy kingdom come, they will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”. After we have recognized he knows best and sees the whole perspective of the situation and reminded ourselves of his power, we can truly pray that his will, not ours, be done in the situation we are about to address. Jesus then prays, “give us our daily bread”. We often rush right into our request of God when we pray. Notice Jesus only starts asking for things after he took the time to remember and submit to the nature and authority of God the Father. He closes by saying we should ask God to forgive us where we fail him, and to help us forgive those that have wronged us. Lastly, he tells us to ask God to deliver us from temptation and from any evil that may befall us.
You see, the promises of the power of prayer that Jesus makes to us in Luke 11 are all true as they have ever been, but we must remember who God is and submit to his will when we pray. He desperately wants us to pour our hearts out to him and bring him our every request. This illustration of prayer, while speaking to the nature of God, even more so speaks to our nature and our need to focus on God’s nature as we bring him these request so we can trust his goodness and plan for our lives no matter our circumstances.
Application
I believe there are times when we just need to cry out to God and God honors those prayers, but in our day to day prayer lives, I have found so many blessings in following the model our Lord Jesus give us in these verses. In your prayer time today, remember to:
1) Acknowledge that God’s perspective is bigger than yours
2) Remember and thank him for past answered prayers and focus on His power
3) Surrender to His will and abandon your own
4) Ask for what you need through the lens of His will being ultimately done
5) Ask Him to forgive you of your sins and help you to forgive those that have sinned against you
6) Ask Him to give you the strength to overcome temptations that will come your way today
7) Ask Him to deliver you from the plans of the evil one
Prayer
Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth, as it is in heaven. Give us our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the power and the glory, forever. Amen.