A Good Way to Pray
Luke 11:1-13
Tony’s Overview Video
How to Use
Preparing to teach
- Read the Bible Lesson by Tony Cartledge in this month’s issue of the Nurturing Faith Journal
- Watch Tony’s Video for this session
- Select either the Adult or Youth teaching guide and follow the directions
Click to read the Bible Lesson by Tony Cartledge
Key Text: Luke 11:9
“So I say to you, ‘Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.'”
What comes to mind when you think of prayer? Is it interceding for the sick or asking for some personal need? Do you pray for your favorite sports team to win a game, or for good weather during your vacation?
We may have much to learn about prayer. [DD]
What to acknowledge (vv. 1-2)
Jesus’ teaching about prayer began with the simple truth that prayer must be learned. Unfortunately, we can learn poor prayer habits as easily as good ones.
One obstacle to proper prayer is the inclination to pray only when in trouble. Prayer is not just for when we are scared or hurting. Nor should prayer be treated as a good luck charm, but sometimes the prayer Jesus taught is used in that way.
How often have we repeated the Lord’s Prayer as a perfunctory ritual with little or no thought? You may remember reciting it in school or prior to sporting events. But turning the prayer into an institutional habit robs it of meaning. [DD]
The most important word in the Lord’s Prayer is the first one: “Father.” These words establish the parameters of prayer: we pray as a child to a parent. We talk to God in the same way and in the same relationship that a trusting child talks to a loving parent.
We recognize that God is beyond gender, yet tradition typically speaks of God in male-gendered language. Many are comfortable with this image, but others may find it difficult. People who have suffered from abusive parenting or from absent fathers may feel little affinity for the term “Father,” though it is intended to convey the image of a present and loving parent.
The familiar words “hallowed be thy name” may seem curious. What can humans do to make God’s name holy? Here context is important: Jesus was talking to Jewish people who believed that certain behaviors such as offering sacrifices, eating only kosher foods, and maintaining ritual purity were all ways of sanctifying God’s name, keeping it holy. [DD]
Prayer, at the start, is an effort to recognize and live into a proper relationship with the Creator of all things, asking first that “your kingdom come.” Luke’s version does not include Matthew’s “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” but it doesn’t need to. To participate in God’s kingdom is to seek God’s will.
Praying as children who trust God to know what is best, we learn that the purpose of prayer is not to bend God’s will to our will, the other way around. We don’t pray so much until God hears us, but until we hear God.
To pray in Jesus’ name is to pray as Jesus prayed – free to express our heart’s desire, but also willing to accept God’s desire for our lives.
That can be hard for us. There are so many things we want God to do, and we cannot always understand why – why the rain won’t come so the crops will grow, or why the cancer will not stop growing. We don’t know why that person who irritates us so much doesn’t change or move away. Even the most effective prayer life does not give us all the answers, but it can give us the faith to live in spite of the answers.
The essence of prayer is to seek an open awareness of God’s faithful presence and to ally ourselves with God’s desire that we demonstrate the same kind of love and justice we see in Jesus. [DD]
What to ask for (vv. 3-4)
Because we can look to God as a trusting child looks to a loving parent, we can be confident that God always has our best interests in mind and desires good for us. “Give us this day our daily bread” is not just a prayer for food, but a recognition that every blessing that makes our lives sustainable comes from God. [DD]
Bad things may happen. All of us are subject to illness and accidents and the ugliness of unkind people, but God is not the source of our pain. When hard times come, God is present with us, ready to help us to muddle through as best we can.
I sometimes ask my divinity school students to share devotional testimonies, and I am often amazed at the struggles they have endured, and how they believe God has provided for them.
Prayer is not a matter of asking God to deliver us from every trouble, but of trusting in God to catch us when we stumble on our own or when someone else trips us up, trusting that God will lift us up and keep us going. [DD]
Prayer acknowledges that we are all-too-prone to falling short of holiness and giving free rein to selfishness. In other words, we sin.
We sin when our actions – or our lack of actions – bring harm to others or to ourselves. We can wreck our own bodies through gluttony or sloth, failing to appreciate and care for our health. We can wreck other people, too, though more commonly in an emotional than a physical sense. Never underestimate the harm that can come from hot words or cold shoulders.
Sin puts distance between us and God, for the root of all sin lies in following our way rather than God’s way.
If we dare ask God for anything, it should begin with forgiveness.
It’s not that simple, though. Jesus minced no words: if we want to be forgiven, we must be willing to forgive. We can’t be freed from the burden of our sin while we’re still carrying the weight of grudges or ill feelings toward others.
A surface reading may lead some readers to conclude that the only issue is financial: the NRSV has “and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us” (v. 4a; Matthew 6:12 has “forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors”).
The language of indebtedness was a common idiom for any sort of offense that leaves another indebted to us, even if what they owe is an apology or an attempt to make things right. The NIV 11 and NET render it as “everyone who sins against us.”
Jesus’ use of “debts” in the prayer, however, could also have been a call to compassion toward the poor. There were no institutional banks in Jesus’ day: people in desperate straits had to borrow money from individuals. Compassionate believers could forgive those debts.
The closing phrase, “and do not bring us to the time of trial,” does not suggest that God leads people into temptation. It is an idiomatic way of asking God to steer us away from doing wrong. If we are serious about seeking God’s way rather than our own, that will take care of itself.
If we can learn to pray as Jesus prayed, there will be a change in us. If we learn to pray to as children who seek God’s blessing in trust and openness, if we learn to pray with an awareness that we are co-workers in God’s kingdom, if we learn to pray with an awareness of our need to forgive and be forgiven, not only will our prayer lives be enriched, but we will never be the same again.
The insistent friend (11:5-8)
Luke’s account locates two brief parables in the context of the Lord’s Prayer. This means that our understanding and interpretation of them must be shaped by the teaching of the prayer that precedes them. Luke presents them as part of Jesus’ response to the request: “Teach us to pray.”
Both parables emphasize God’s response to human prayer. Also, both employ the strategy of moving from lesser to greater: if neighbors and fathers respond to our requests, how much more will God answer the prayers of those in need?
The first parable is usually called something like “The Parable of the Insistent Friend.” [DD] It posits a situation in which a neighbor comes knocking late at night, asking to borrow three loaves of bread to offer an unexpected visitor. Ancient “loaves” were typically round pieces of flat bread – closer to three slices of bread than what we normally think of as loaves.
Hospitality customs demanded that hosts offer food as well as shelter to guests, hence the neighbor’s urgency and persistence. Even if the homeowner was uninclined to grant the bread out of friendship, he recognized his neighbor’s need and met it.
The generous father (11:9-13)
Would not God be even more willing to respond to our needs when we pray with persistence? Those who ask, seek, and knock will find God to be receptive (vv. 9-11). These familiar verses, often misused by adherents to the heretical “prosperity gospel,” do not promise that God will give us whatever we ask, or that wealth is a sign of God’s favor.
They are written in the context of one who prays within the sphere of God’s kingdom will, and who has been asked to meet a neighbor’s very basic but urgent need.
Likewise, Jesus pointed out, parents can be trusted to provide good things for their children. They would never respond to a request for fish or eggs with a basket of snakes or scorpions.
If earthly parents can be so trusted, can we not trust God to provide what we need? In most cases, God has provided the physical ability for us to obtain what we need through our own labor. Through people who truly care for others, God can also provide for those who are unable to do anything for themselves.
Prayer is an essential aspect of the believer’s life, not as a pathway to prosperity, but as a means of attuning our lives ever closer to God’s desire for us. In doing so, we may become the answer to others’ prayers.
Adult Teaching Resources
Download the PDF of teaching resources for this lesson.
This PDF contains the Teaching Guide, Digging Deeper, and Hardest Question pages.
Read Scripture online: Luke 11:1-13
Youth Teaching Resources
Parent Prep
With schedules becoming tighter and tighter and less free time, when do you pray? Are you a morning person that gets up early? Are you a night owl who reflects on their day? Do you utter prayers as you are driving down the road? Most importantly, do you pray? Prayer is not magic or formulaic, but to connect you with God. So maybe, instead of thinking about how you pray, think about how you best connect with God, and then do that more.
Additional Links/Resources
Read Scripture online: Luke 11:1-13
Download the PDF for youth teaching resources using the button below. This PDF contains the Teaching Guide for this lesson:
Video
Encourage youth to check out this video ahead of the lesson.
“Bruce Answers Prayers” from Bruce Almighty
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