Teach Us to Pray

Today’s Passage: Luke 11:1–13

Jesus had gone off to pray, the way He often did. When He finished, one of the men who followed Him did not ask for a lesson on preaching or on working wonders. He asked to be taught to pray. Today we begin a short walk through the practices that feed a life with God, and we begin where that disciple did, with prayer.

As you read, hold this: Ask. Your Father loves to give.

Luke 11:1 (BSB)

¹ One day in a place where Jesus had just finished praying, one of His disciples requested, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”

They did not ask to be taught to preach, or to lead, or to do the great things they had seen Him do. They asked to be taught to pray. They had noticed that everything else in Him seemed to come out of those quiet hours alone with His Father. So the first thing they wanted was that.

Luke 11:2–4 (BSB)

² So Jesus told them, “When you pray, say: ‘Father, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. ³ Give us each day our daily bread. ⁴ And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.’”

Jesus gives them a pattern, not a spell to recite. It begins with the Father, His name and His kingdom, before it ever reaches our own needs. Then it turns to the plain things a person needs in order to live: bread for the day, forgiveness for our sins, and help when we are tempted. It is short. A child can hold it. Prayer, He is showing them, is not long or fancy. It is a child speaking honestly to a Father.

We can thank God that He tells us to ask for today's (ἐπιούσιος) epiousios, pronounced eh-pee-OO-see-os. Strong's G1967, for the coming day, daily, the day's own portion. This word means the bread for just today, not a stash for later. It is manna language: God gave Israel enough for one day at a time, and Jesus teaches us to ask the same way. portion, today. He does not ask us to carry tomorrow. He asks us to come back to Him in the morning.

Luke 11:5–8 (BSB)

⁵ Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose one of you goes to his friend at midnight and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, ⁶ because a friend of mine has come to me on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him.’ ⁷ And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Do not bother me. My door is already shut, and my children and I are in bed. I cannot get up to give you anything.’ ⁸ I tell you, even though he will not get up to provide for him because of his friendship, yet because of the man’s persistence, he will get up and give him as much as he needs.

Then Jesus tells a small story to show how to keep asking. A man goes to a neighbor at midnight because a guest has arrived and he has no bread to set out. The neighbor is already in bed with his children and does not want to get up. Yet the man keeps at the door, and in the end he gets what he needs. Jesus is not saying that God is like that sleepy, reluctant neighbor. He is saying the opposite. If even a grumbling man will finally answer someone who will not give up, how much more will a good Father answer a child who keeps coming to Him? So keep coming. Do not stop at the first silence.

Luke 11:9–10 (BSB)

⁹ So I tell you: Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. ¹⁰ For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

Now Jesus says it plainly, with three pictures of not giving up: ask, seek, knock. Each one is a door you keep going back to. And the promise under all three is the same. Everyone who asks receives. He is not describing a lock that stays shut. He is describing a door that opens.

Luke 11:11–13 (BSB)

¹¹ What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? ¹² Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? ¹³ So if you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”

Then He reasons from the small thing to the great one. No decent father hands his hungry child a snake or a scorpion when the child asks for food. And human fathers, Jesus says plainly, are evil. Even so, they know how to give good gifts to their children. If that is true of us, how much more true is it of the Father in heaven. And notice the best gift He names here. Not money, and not an easy life, but the Holy Spirit, God giving His own self to those who ask. That is the Father these men were learning to pray to. That is the Father we pray to still.

The first practice is the simplest one of all. You do not have to be clever, and you do not have to have the right words ready. You only have to come, and to keep coming. Ask. Your Father loves to give.

Personal Application

1. Has prayer quietly become something you perform, or something you have given up on, rather than a child asking a Father who is glad to be asked?

2. What have you stopped asking God for, because you already decided ahead of time what His answer would be?

Today’s decision: Pray the prayer Jesus gave here, slowly and out loud, once today. Or take one thing you have been carrying in silence and simply ask God for it, in plain words, the way a child asks a father.

Pray to Close

The central truth: Ask. Your Father loves to give.

Praise: praise Him that He is a good Father who knows how to give good gifts to His children.

Give thanks: thank Him that He invites you to ask, and to keep coming back.

Confess: tell Him where you had stopped coming to Him, or had decided His answer for Him.

Ask: ask Him plainly for what you need today, and for more of His own Spirit.