*Luke 11:1-13
Jesus provides profound teachings on prayer, offering insights into the nature of God’s response to our petitions.
- The Lord’s Prayer:
- One of Jesus’s disciples asks him to teach them to pray as John the Baptist taught his followers.
- Jesus provides a prayer template, known as the Lord’s Prayer:
- Acknowledge God’s holiness: “Father, hallowed be your name.”
- Seek God’s kingdom: “Your kingdom come.”
- Ask for daily needs: “Give us each day our daily bread.”
- Request forgiveness: “Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.”
- Seek protection: “Lead us not into temptation.”
- Parable of the Persistent Friend:
- Jesus tells a story of a man who visits his friend at midnight seeking bread to offer an unexpected guest.
- Despite the inconvenience, the friend eventually helps because of the visitor’s persistence.
- Encouragement to Ask, Seek, and Knock:
- Jesus teaches that those who ask will receive, those who seek will find, and those who knock will have doors opened.
- He uses the analogy of a father who wouldn’t give a snake or scorpion when asked by his child for a fish or egg.
- He assures that if humans know how to give good gifts, God will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.
11:1 And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.
11:2 And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.
11:3 Give us day by day our daily bread.
11:4 And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.
11:5 And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves; 11:6 For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him? 11:7 And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee.
11:8 I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth.
11:9 And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
11:10 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
11:11 If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? 11:12 Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 11:13 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?