Teach Us To Pray Series

Over the last couple of sections of Luke’s gospel, we’ve considered the importance of loving God with all that we are and loving others. We’ve also reflected on the value of sitting before Jesus in order to just be with Him and learn before we get in to the practice of serving.

It seems like in these two sections, the common thread is love for or connection with God. He wants our affection and our attention. I would contend that we NEED that connection.

One of the most beautiful ways that connection with God is manifested is in prayer. Prayer can be both a simple act and a complex and challenging discipline.

When I was growing up, our family would visit my grandparent’s house from time to time. When we would sit down for dinner, my grandmother would utter this prayer:

“Come Lord Jesus be our guest and let these gifts to us be blessed, Amen”

Is that prayer?

If you’ve watched the chosen series you’ve heard the characters there utter a prayer:

“Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, who brings forth bread from the earth.”

Is that prayer?

When you and I are in the midst of desperate need and we simply cry out:

“Lord save me”

Is that prayer?

I’ve read of people who have said that their schedules are so busy that they can’t spend less than two hours in prayer.

When Elmer Towns went off to seminary, he wanted to pray for an hour each day. On the first day of this discipline, he went into his closet and prayed to God on his knees. After what felt like an hour, he got up, looked at the clock and found that it was only 15 minutes.

Is that prayer?

For all of these think the answer is yes.

Whether scripted prayers or spontaneous ones; brief expressions or extended intercession - all of that is prayer - as it connects us with God.

So, in the section that we’re considering today, Luke seems to be wrapping up a three-part teaching on what Bock calls “a disciple’s responsibilities before God - love God and others, wholehearted devotion to God (learning), and finally living a life of dependence with and connection to God through prayer.”

So let’s look at Jesus’ teaching on prayer.

Luke 11:1–13 ESV

Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” And he said to them, “When you pray, say:

“Father, hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come.

Give us each day our daily bread,

and forgive us our sins,

for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.

And lead us not into temptation.”

And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything’? I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs. And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If 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!”

If you’re familiar with Matthew’s version of this prayer and the sermon on the mount, some of this language might sound a bit familiar. In many ways it is. Luke’s version of the Lord’s prayer is an abbreviated version of Matthew’s. Their surrounding teaching is slightly different as well - Matthew’s is nestled within the sermon on the mount where Luke’s is in response to a disciple’s request. Luke also includes some teaching that we see in Matthew - but not closely associated with prayer.

Some of those similarities and differences are often the fodder for scholars and critics. For us today, let’s consider what Luke incudes here - keeping in mind that he is writing this material in order to help Theophilus (his initial audience) - have certainty about what he has heard (Luke 1:4).