Present Our Needs To Him

The Lord’s Prayer: Our Daily Bread

FULL TEXT: Luke 11:1-4

Key Verse 3

Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” And he said to them, “When you pray, say:

“Father, hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come.

Give us each day our daily bread,

and forgive us our sins,

for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.

And lead us not into temptation.”

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THOUGHTS FROM TODAY’S SCRIPTURES:

Just in case we think He forgot, Jesus reminds us here that God wants us to present our needs to Him. There’s something about praying “Father, hallowed by your name… Your kingdom come…” that puts us in the right mindset to pray about our needs. Although God already knows our needs, presenting our needs verbally to Him brings us to a point of greater vulnerability and dependence. Just a few verses later in Luke 11:5-13, Jesus gives some thoughts on how we approach God with our needs. Here are three very practical implications:

1. We should pray persistently. Persistent prayer has a way of showing God we’re serious, increases our desperation for God, and even purifies our prayer life.

2. We should pray specifically. Specific prayers enable us to connect the dots between our prayers and God’s activity in ways that overly broad and vague prayers cannot.

3. We should pray expectantly. Praying expectantly reminds us that our loving Father ultimately has our best interests in mind even when He does not respond the way we want him to.

What are some specific needs you to need to persistently and expectantly present to God?