How God Sees Our Prayers Series

Please open your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke, Chap. 11…

In the beginning of Luke 11Jesus taught His disciples how to pray. This prayer is also in Matthew 6 and is popularly known as the Lord’s Prayer. It really should be called The Disciple’s Prayer; maybe this is one reason why many people just pray this prayer by rote, wrongly thinking they are honoring the Lord Jesus Christ. Note the danger of not being Biblical.

As we noted last week, Jesus taught to pray with the biblical principles stated in Luke 11 and in Matthew 6. Always pray Biblically. Pray for God’s will, not our own.

Jesus continued His teaching about prayer in Luke 11. Before reading our passage for this morning, let us pray our commitment to God’s Word ….

The Lord Jesus taught how disciples are to pray. (11:1-4)

Always pray biblically. Pray for God’s will, not our own.

What else did Jesus teach about prayer?

Read along with me Luke 11:5-13….

Verse 9 is the key verse isn’t it? Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. What is Jesus teaching about prayer here?

a. Always go to God for everything! Always seek God, knock on heaven’s door, and ask anything!

How important is this truth?

This truth of always going to God for everything is so important that Jesus actually repeated it in another way. Look again at v10…..

God promises He will give an answer when asked, will be found when sought, and His doors will be opened when if we want to enter His gates!

In other words, God and all His resources are always available to people!

And going back to v5- 8, what was Jesus teaching there? Let’s look at the story again. A friend went to a friend for a favor at a reasonable time right??

The friend asked a favor at midnight while his friend was already asleep along with his kids!

And also, did the friend ask a favor from his friend for himself? – No!

The friend actually had the audacity to wake up his friend in the middle of the night to ask a favor to a person who was a stranger to the one bothered!!

And did the friend get up to give bread because it was his friend asking? – again, no!

The friend got up to give bread because his friend kept bothering him!

What’s the point here??

b. God does not get bothered by our constant asking!

God is always available!

And in v11-13, what was Jesus teaching about prayer there?

Because of a father’s love their children and they will not give anything bad to their children!

c. Those who are children of God can have the power of God the Holy Spirit!

What are we to apply to our lives today?

We are to always go to God for everything!

1. We are to acknowledge God for everything!

If we do not acknowledge God for everything, it means we are depending on something or someone else which are ungodly! Watch out for the devil to steal from you the good, the great things from God!

2. We are to always talk to and ask from God for whatever and whenever!

God is a big God who is not bothered by all the prayer requests that He gets or when those prayer requests are made. But we need to note that God knows best; therefore, God will always answer our prayers but according to His Perfect will. What does this mean after we ask God?

God will certainly answer our prayer requests, but we need to consider the 3 ways God answers prayers.

God can answer:

a. Absolutely, Yes. Why did you wait so long to ask?

b. No, I love you too much.

c. You have to work on other things first!

Ask God whatever is in your heart, but be ready for these 3 possible answers.

And lastly, children of God can have the power of God the Holy Spirit!

But here’s what we read in John 8:42-46…. Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me. Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me?