Morning Message Text: Luke 11: 1-13
Jesus’ Teaching on Prayer
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.”
2 He said to them, “When you pray, say: “ ‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.
3 Give us each day our daily bread.
4 Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation. ’ ”
5 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;
6 a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’
7 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.’
8 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.
9 “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.
10 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
11 “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead?
12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?
13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
Morning Message:
What does it mean to persist in prayer? To persist means to continue steadily in some purpose or course of action in spite of opposition. To be insistent in a request. Let me be clear; persistent prayer is not ritual prayer. Being persistent is not chanting or just repeating the same prayer over and over again. We are repeatedly told in scripture that God doesn’t call us to pray just for the sake of doing it. It is easy for us to become complacent with our prayers and not put a lot of thought into our time with God. I have always preached to you that God wants us to be intentional in our faith, and I believe that includes our prayer time. Let me ask you this! Do you ever find yourself stuck in your prayer life? What do I mean by that? We are creatures of habit. We easily turn our actions into habits and do them repeatedly whether they need done or not. Sometimes we can find ourselves praying for things that we have already received and thanking God for things that we may have received a long time ago. Is it only me, or do our prayers, if we are not careful, become obsessive compulsive?
Today’s message is not complicated so I will try not to over-complicate it. There is no special way that you must pray. Prayer is simply a conversation with God. It should be easy and natural, like having a conversation with a very close friend or loved one. There are some important elements of prayer that we should adhere to as Christians. Jesus, in this scaled down version of the Lord’s Prayer, gives us some very basic instructions on how to honor God with our prayers. By the way, this probably should more appropriately be called the Disciples’ Prayer, which makes it our prayer as followers of Jesus. I have covered this before, but it has been a while. Jesus says: When you pray, say: “Father, hallowed be Your name.” This is so basic, but we need to be clear about who we are praying to. As followers of Jesus, we are praying to God the Father. God is everything and He can have many titles, but none of them are as personal as Father.
“Hallowed be Your name.” What does that even mean? I saw a Christian joke once that went something like this. A Sunday School teacher was asking her students what God’s name was. The children took turns giving their answers, most not having any idea, but when little Tommy was asked, he confidently shouted, “His name is Howard.” The teacher, surprised by the answer, and Tommy’s confidence in it asked him, “Why do you think it’s Howard?” Tommy replied that’s easy. It is in the Lord’s Prayer, “Howard be your name.” What does it mean to hallow someone’s name? To honor and make holy. Prayer should start with praise. Now I know that sometimes we say quick prayers during the day, and we get right to the point, but during our regular prayer time we should remember praise and thanksgiving at the beginning of our prayers.
When we pray, “Your Kingdom come”, we are in effect asking for the return of Jesus and God’s kingdom to reign in this world. We are agreeing with God that His kingdom would be better than anything this world has to offer. Do you truly feel that way?
Personally, when I pray, I switch lines three and four because I don’t feel right asking God for anything until He has cleansed me from my sins. Then we should ask for our daily needs, realizing that God’s blessings are fresh and new every day and depending daily on God’s provision. We say “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” Other churches say trespasses. I think that sins makes the most sense. We should constantly ask God for the strength to resist temptation. God doesn’t lead us into temptation, but he does allow temptation in order for us to grow in our faith and learn to depend on his strength, not our own.
There is one thing that I would add which we are taught in scripture. Every prayer should be prayed in the name of Jesus. Jesus is the only way for mankind to access God. Trying to pray without Jesus is like a pencil without lead: pointless. This should make perfect sense to Christians. It is only through the death and resurrection of Jesus and our acceptance of it that we can be acceptable in the sight of God. There is no other access to the Father except through the Son and His sacrifice on the cross. I do not believe that we honor God by coming together with other religions to pray. Some might say that is not very Christian of me.
Remember I did not say other denominations of the Christian church, but if prayer cannot be dedicated in the name of Jesus, I want no part of it because it is a waste of time. God does not hear it.
Now that we have an idea how we should pray, why do we need to be persistent in prayer? I mean, after all, God knows all things and He doesn’t forget what we have asked for. Isn’t asking for the same things repeatedly the same as making our prayers a ritual? It can be, if God has already answered the prayer or said no to the prayer. We can read this scripture and think that Jesus is telling us that we have to nag God in order to get him to answer our prayers, but God is not in bed and refusing to get up. Our asking and seeking and knocking, our persistence before God is not for His benefit but ours. The idea that prayer is a passive activity has no place in the Word of God. Prayer involves persistence in conflict and spiritual warfare. If you read the Psalms you will hear persistent prayers repeated again and again from the lips of faithful people.
Listen, prayer is a matter of faith — taking God at his word and trusting His promises to work on His people’s behalf — even when His work is invisible; when the answers are long in coming, and when He seems to be withholding His blessings. Now listen: The act of persistent prayer proclaims a believer’s commitment to God. Being persistent in prayer, asking God over and over again, is not to arouse Him and make Him hear, it’s to show your commitment to God and your faith in His ability to answer your prayers.
In Christ’s Love and Peace,
Pastor Bob
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