Today’s Scripture Reading: Luke 11:1-13; SOAP / Luke 11:9-10
“So I tell you: Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
Luke 11:9-10 NET
In our most recent post we talked about what it would have been like to have walked and talked with Jesus as the disciples did. Today’s passage makes me think of what it must have been like to have heard Him pray. With out a doubt I would have made the same request that the disciple did, “Lord, teach us to pray”. Actually, over the past forty years or so, I have often prayed for Him to do just that. Oh, and how often I have looked back to the model prayer He answered the disciple with in our passage. We know it as the Lord’s prayer and I imagine many of you routinely use the prayer as your own, or perhaps, like me, you use its outline (Adoration… Confession… Thanksgiving… Supplication) as a standard for praying. However you use it we know that it is a good model for us because it came from Jesus as a direct answer to, “teach us to pray.”
While the prayer is not the focus passage for the day, I do believe the focus passage is an extension of Jesus’ lesson on how to pray. Following the words of the prayer, Jesus gives an illustration about two friends, one asking for help from another in the middle of the night. Jesus makes the point that “Because of the one man’s persistence the friend will get up and give him whatever he needs”, and He ties it in with a deeper lesson than just the words to the model prayer. Don’t just pray words, pray with persistence, persistence that comes from faith and faith that comes from the Word of God – by which we know Who He is and what He can do and what He has done before.
Read our passage again and notice how Jesus tells His disciples to ask, seek, and knock, promising results if they do – in other words pray and expect God to hear you and to answer. The answer may not always be what we wanted it to be – but it will be answered according to His time and His will and we will see His goodness.
Response to God’s Word
Father, thank You for the gift of prayer and the encouragement to be persistent – the promise is that You hear and respond and this indeed is a promise and a blessing to be cherished! Help us to pray as Jesus taught us, honoring You with our hearts and words. Ma we seek Your kingdom and Your will above all else. May we bring to You our daily needs and seek Your forgiveness and protection from our sins and the temptations that would lead us into sin. You are a faithful and good good Father – and as Jesus prayed, we believe – Yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever – Amen!