Prayer

Luke 11:1-10

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.” He said to them, “When you pray, say: “‘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.’” 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. “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened."

We talked about this passage today in church. I have always been a person that prays about almost everything, mainly because it makes me feel better about the situation that I am going through. I have realized that I shouldn’t be praying to satisfy me, but to satisfy Him. Prayer should not just be something that I do because I know that is what I am supposed to do. I need pray because I believe that my prayers can be answered, not just because its “the right thing to do.”

In this passage, Jesus begins to teach his disciples how to pray. He outlines the Lord’s prayer that most of us have had memorized since we were little kids. But have we ever actually paid any attention to it? It starts out by praising God, then goes into asking for our daily bread, our “food and shelter.” It then continues by asking God to forgive our sins and the sins of others. It finishes off with “lead us not into temptation.”  This part can have so many different meanings, for so many different parts of our lives. It is completely up to interpretation, depending on what struggle you are currently dealing with.

Jesus then tells the story of the friend who knocks on the door of his friend late at night, asking for bread. This friend, whose doors are locked up and is in bed with his children, does not want to give the friend at his door what is desperately needed. However the friend does not give up and keeps asking for the bread until the friend has to give it to him. Jesus says after this story, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”

So KEEP asking, KEEP seeking, and KEEP knocking because it will be given to you, you will find it, and a door WILL be opened to you. Pray with intensity, pray with fury, pray with passion. Pray with meaning, pray because you believe that God can do the impossible. When something happens and your life and you cannot do anymore to deal with it, pray pray pray. Do not go looking for different routes whenever a problem arises, do not avoid prayer because you think you’ve got it all under control. God is the God of immeasurably more and He wants to do IMMEASURABLY more in your life, but you have to let Him and it all starts with a simple prayer.