Our Personal, Ultimate IntercessorSample

The prayer Jesus taught to His disciples

Read Luke 11:1-4, and then think about the prayer that Jesus taught His disciples. How do we apply it to our lives?

• Recognize Him as our Father (as our Father, He loves us, and we can come to Him anytime).
• Recognize Him as holy (He is absolutely pure, so we must come to Him in humility).
• Pray for His kingdom to come and His will to be done (First priority is for His kingdom to come and rule, and for His will to be done in everything, starting in our lives, and then moving throughout the world).
• Pray for our sustenance (when His kingdom rules and His will is done, we can ask and expect Him to meet our needs as Matthew 6:33 reaffirms: “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness...”).
• Ask for forgiveness for our sins as we forgive others (when we forgive others, we can ask for forgiveness for ourselves. Jesus makes this clear in Matthew 18:35 and in the story leading up to it: “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you...”).
• Ask Him to lead us away from temptation (God wants to protect us from the temptations of the evil one).

Prayer is not difficult; it is just talking to God and listening to Him. The hard part is learning to communicate with a God we cannot see. That takes practice. We need to remember that God is not our servant and not our genie. He is the uncreated Creator of the universe, and knowing that can make us afraid of Him. He doesn’t want us to be afraid – just to recognize who He is and that He always knows what is best for us since each one of us has been created as a unique and special person. We can pray and talk to God about anything, but always in the context of who He is, and recognizing His Lordship over our lives.

Reflection: Is prayer beginning to sound like the wisest priority in our lives?