December 9 – Jesus Teaches How to Pray – Luke 11
Jesus gives the disciples a sample prayer. The prayer was not meant to be chanted or quoted as some special connection to God. In fact, it has been used as a meaningless ritual which has proven to be more detrimental to the person than it was a help. It becomes detrimental when an individual puts more value on chanting this prayer than he does a personal relationship with God. Jesus is giving us a template, so to speak. Jesus gave the disciples certain elements and attitudes to include when praying. Let’s look at these elements. When we pray we are to: 1) humbly come before the Father and address Him as a Holy God 2) keep our focus on the future kingdom God will set up 3) Ask for God’s will to be done over our own wishes 4) Ask for daily needs 5) Ask for forgiveness with an attitude of complete forgiveness to others 6) Ask for guidance away from temptation 7) deliverance from the evil that we must face.
How many of these things have you included in a prayer today?
