11 Once Jesus was in a certain place praying. As he finished, one of his disciples came to him and said, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”

² Jesus said, “This is how you should pray:

“Father, may your name be kept holy.
    May your Kingdom come soon.
³ Give us each day the food we need,
⁴ and forgive us our sins,
    as we forgive those who sin against us.
And don’t let us yield to temptation.”

⁵ Then, teaching them more about prayer, he used this story: “Suppose you went to a friend’s house at midnight, wanting to borrow three loaves of bread. You say to him, ⁶ ‘A friend of mine has just arrived for a visit, and I have nothing for him to eat.’ ⁷ And suppose he calls out from his bedroom, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is locked for the night, and my family and I are all in bed. I can’t help you.’ ⁸ But I tell you this—though he won’t do it for friendship’s sake, if you keep knocking long enough, he will get up and give you whatever you need because of your shameless persistence.

⁹ “And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. ¹⁰ For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.

¹¹ “You fathers—if your children ask for a fish, do you give them a snake instead? ¹² Or if they ask for an egg, do you give them a scorpion? Of course not! ¹³ So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.”

Luke 11:1-13

Dear God, I think there might be a Bible Project series on the Lord’s Prayer. At least, I am pretty sure one of the podcasts I listen to–Bible Project, Voxology, or Slow Theology–did a series on it, looking at it slowly. A church has asked me to do a talk on prayer at one of their Lenten services in a few weeks, so I thought I’d take a look at how you taught us to pray this morning.

My biggest weakness in prayer is intercessory prayer. Praying for my friends who are ailing physically, struggling through life’s trials like divorce or losing a loved one or money, or who are just struggling with emotional pain. Then I noticed something about the Lord’s Prayer when I read it here in Luke this morning. As far as the prayer goes, Jesus doesn’t have praying for my neighbor as part of it. Hmm. That’s weird. The prayer is pretty self-centered (and not in a bad way). It’s about my worship of you. It’s about my wish for your kingdom here, in the present. It’s about my repentance and my temptations. It’s about my daily bread. Or is it?

I think I’ve been doing something wrong when I pray this prayer. I’ve intentionally personalized it and changed the “us” to “me.” “Give me this day my daily bread.” I’ve tried to make this an intentional prayer, but maybe the collective “us” was intentional on Jesus’s part. Both Matthew and Luke say it that way in the different English translations. And maybe that’s where the prayers for others comes in. For example, I have a friend in a physical rehab facility after a car accident. When I pray the collective “us,” maybe I’m praying for her provision for daily bread as well. And that’s part of her daily bread. Her healing–both physical and emotionally after the trauma of the accident and the road to recovery she’s facing.

Father, you are in heaven and you are glorious. You have left the world your Holy Spirit through Jesus. You are everything. You are powerful. You are God. Your name is to amazing, so I can only use words like Father or add a capital G to God to reference you. I do pray that they kingdom you designed us to be will come today on this earth. I pray that in the areas of the world, our country, and our community that are far from you will experience your light, love, joy, and peace. I pray for the daily bread–physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually–for my family, friends, and me. And I pray that you will forgive all of us, and help us know what it means to forgive and to give that forgiveness freely, for our own sake as well as for the forgiven. And protect us from Satan and his plans to tempt us in the wrong direction. To lead us into selfishness, idolatry, and away from you and your best for us. Father, the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen