Ever-Persevering Petitions

February 23, 2020 Background Scripture: Luke 11:1 – 13 Lesson Passage: Luke 11:5 – 13 Jesus was a man of prayer. Jesus scheduled time for prayer—or, better yet, Jesus made provisions whereby he could spend time in prayer. It should be noted that whenever the bible records specific prayers of Jesus, they were always conversational between him and the Father. It does not appear that Jesus’ prayers were mere speeches repeated to yield a desired result. But instead, Jesus’ prayers were trusting and loving conversations with his Father. Jesus did not appear to approach God as though He were some distant and indifferent superbeing with powers to bless or afflict. Jesus appeared to approach God as one would their own loving parent. His approach was respectful, in a spirit of communion or fellowship, and with a sense of real connection between the two. In was not some incantation recited into space with the hope of getting a desired result as the proof that it was done correctly—so as not to offend a sensitive deity. There is no wonder that after observing Jesus in prayer, that one of his followers would have inquired of him that he would teach them to pray also. The background scripture states that the disciple asked Jesus to teach them “to pray”. That can be very different from being taught “how to pray”. As was stated in the notes for last week’s lesson, this model prayer is not intended to be a “prayer speech” to be repeated as one’s own sincere petition to God. It models one’s approach to a Holy God as one approaching his Holy Father. God is to be addressed as a loving and caring Father and not as though He is some indifferent and overly-sensitive deity who needs our obeisance—even if it is vain or empty rhetoric. One should approach God with the respect due to a holy and loving Father. Although God knows everything, we should still communicate our requests to Him. By requesting what we want, it should become more instinctive for us to respond in gratitude when our petitions are answered. God does not have to do anything for us, because He is sovereign. We should be grateful when He chooses to grant us our petitions. Our petitions should aid us in fulfilling the kingdom’s agenda. Put another way, we should ask God for what we need to fulfill His will for His kingdom. And, we should not ask of God anything that is contrary to His will. When this is done, Jesus assured his disciples that God hears them, and He will grant them according to their request. Furthermore, it should be expected that if God is good, then what He does will be good likewise. As Jesus stated, even earthly parents know how to give good things to their children. How much more then would a Holy and Righteous God give good things to His spiritual children. The main point of Jesus’ lesson to his disciples seem to be that we are to pursue a right relationship with God as His children. It may bode well for us to consider this to be Jesus’ key teaching concerning prayer. A prayer is not a list of wishes or apologies to an impersonal spiritual entity. Prayer is the spiritual conversation between human beings and our Spiritual Creator and Redeemer. Persevering should not be a matter of us making time to pray. It should be that we deliberately set aside time to spend in prayer and communion with our Heavenly Father. Robert C. Hudson February 3, 2020