1 One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he had finished, one of his disciples said to him,
Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.
2 Jesus said to them,
When you pray, say this:
Father:
May your holy name be honored;
may your Kingdom come.
3 Give us day by day the food we need.
4 Forgive us our sins,
for we forgive everyone who does us wrong.
And do not bring us to hard testing.
5 And Jesus said to his disciples,
Suppose one of you should go to a friend’s house at midnight and say,
Friend, let me borrow three loaves of bread. 6 A friend of mine who is on a trip has just come to my house, and I don’t have any food for him!
7 And suppose your friend should answer from inside,
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 Well, what then? I tell you that even if he will not get up and give you the bread because you are his friend, yet he will get up and give you everything you need because you are not ashamed to keep on asking. 9 And so I say to you: Ask, and you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. 10 For those who ask will receive, and those who seek will find, and the door will be opened to anyone who knocks. 11 Would any of you who are fathers give your son a snake when he asks for fish? 12 Or would you give him a scorpion when he asks for an egg? 13 As bad as you are, you know how to give good things to your children. How much more, then, will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!
Read Luke 11:1-13 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!
In this journal entry, we’ll be looking at Luke’s version of Jesus’ “model” prayer. The disciples find Jesus praying, and they ask Him to teach them. When we look at the themes from this prayer, we find some very interesting ideas:
First, Jesus’ model prayer is very simple. Matthew’s version of the prayer is the famous one, while Luke’s version is much less glamorous. The primary focus, which is found in the opening, is all about giving honor and respect to God – simply because of who He is. The focus is not on asking for anything for ourselves or thanking Him for blessings.
Secondly, after setting our focus on God, we bring three requests to God. Here is where the theme of the prayer gets interesting. We ask for food to sustain us for another day, we ask for conditional forgiveness as we choose to forgive others, and we ask for protection from temptation. Looking at the theme of each request, we see a pattern:
Asking for food each day is a physical request that shows we are physically dependant on God.
Asking for forgiveness as we forgive others is a social request that asks us to lean on God for the strength to forgive and release those who have wronged us.
Asking for protection from temptation is a spiritual request that asks us to depend on God for help through the trials of life.
After setting the stage and acknowledging who God is, we spend the remainder of the prayer (remember this is Luke’s simplified version) bringing God our physical, social, and spiritual needs and in each request, we are acknowledging that we need His help.
This four part model prayer (the opening plus the three requests) is the way Jesus directs us to come before God, and this is the big idea behind this journal entry: Our prayers don’t have to be long or complicated, but they should include our acknowledging who God is, and on our continued dependence on Him.
This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!
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