Scripture Reading: Luke 11.1-13 Today's inspiration: "Ask and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find;

knock, and the door will be opened to you." Lk. 11.9

Good Morning.

Luke does a masterful job painting the portrait of a devoted Son for His Father. Praying was an integral part of Jesus' life, and Luke, more than the other gospel writers, captures the priority Jesus places on prayer. We often catch Jesus stepping away, setting time apart to spend time communicating with God. As we mentioned the other day, to be 'holy' means to be 'set apart.' Jesus is our example of living intentionally, making time for prayer, and then doing it!

The band of men who Jesus was training, the disciples, regularly saw Jesus make time to pray. One such occasion, they asked Him to teach them to pray; they were asking for a specific prayer or way of praying that would bind them together. Remember, this was a new thing--life with the Messiah--so old ways of praying were being fulfilled in their day-to-day time with Jesus. "Lord, teach us to pray." And so, Jesus gave us a prayer that was early on dubbed "The Lord's Prayer" or the "Our Father"; really, we should call it 'the disciples' prayer', because it is a manner of praying that we, His disciples--His followers, pray to this day. Beyond that, it serves as a model we can adapt for our own personalized prayer to our loving heavenly Father. Note that by starting with "Our Father" we are laying claim to our sonship, because through Jesus, we have become His sons/daughters. That is good news.

"Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name--Your kingdom come, Your will be done--on earth as it is in Heaven" - how right,

how appropriate to begin by praising/adoring God~

"Give us this day our daily bread" - we are to seek daily provision for our needs~ do you remember the old hymn "Great is Thy

Faithfulness"? The text captures this so well. . . from Scripture,

"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning,

Great is Your faithfulness." Lamentations 3.22-23

-Think of it. . . our God has a steady supply of mercy for us each day.

"Forgive us our sins" - ask God to search our hearts, see if there is anything we need to confess and turn away from~

"as we forgive those who sin against us" - we are forgiven by God in the same way we forgive other people~ 'doubt me? Read

Matthew 6.14-15 It is critical we get this 'forgiveness' thing down. Perhaps if you have trouble forgiving others, you have not sought

God for forgiveness yourself, and then accepted His forgiveness. 1 John 1.9 - If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive

us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That is good news.

"Lead us not into temptation" - "God, keep us strong in the face of temptation!" It is not God who tempts us,

but our own desires which give way to sin... James 1.13-15. (powerful)

"But deliver us from evil" - "Protect us from the ways of the evil one"~

"For Thine is the kingdom, the power and glory forever. Amen" "For this life we have as Your creation is to be lived for You

and for Your purposes so that You will be glorified forever"~

"Amen" - "Yes, so be it."

I was a schoolteacher for years and can still remember telling my students to take out a blank sheet of paper, and write about 'this' or 'that' topic. For many, that blank sheet of paper caused them to not just go blank, but almost blind! 'Are you kidding me? 'You want me to write 250 words about ____? I don't even know where to begin!' For those that had attention deficit issues, it caused particular angst, and they just stalled by breaking pencils or dropping their erasers on the floor. . . or . . . UNLESS I helped them construct an outline, or brainstormed some ideas. Essentially, that is what Jesus did for all of us--He gave us a framework for prayer, a construct that would forever give us an amazing way to approach our heavenly Father in prayer. That is great news!

Here's a thought--why don't you write your own personalized prayer, line by line, using Jesus' model? Because as Jesus told the disciples, "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you."

So that you will pray to your Father,

Christine