The Everyday Prayer

Re:Verse passage – Luke 11:5-13  (day four)

Jesus was teaching His disciples to pray.  As was His custom, He used parables to drive home the point.  This week’s parable uses a contrast to paint the picture of prayer.  Jesus is not advocating asking over and over until God is worn down…He is saying if this friend will finally respond to the need, how much more will the loving Father answer our prayer.  God stands ready in His love and mercy to pour out His Spirit upon us.

How has God answered prayer for you recently?  Have you stopped to thank Him for His answers?  We may still remain consistent and persistent in prayer, but we learn to recognize when God has given His answer.  We have a hymn in our hymnal that was written nearly one hundred years ago.  The chorus sings:

Count your blessings, name them one by one;
Count your blessings, see what God hath done;
Count your blessings, name them one by one;
Count your many blessings, see what God hath done.
(Hymn #644)

Re:Verse passage –Luke 11:5-13 (day three)

Just before this parable, the disciples ask Jesus to teach them how to pray. He gives them what we now know as the Lord’s prayer, and in the same breath, he begins this story of a man persistently asking for bread.

We shouldn’t be surprised when persistence is needed in our prayer life – Jesus lays it all out for us. It’s one of the first things he teaches his disciples about prayer. If we’re going to have a healthy, thriving prayer life, then we’re going to have to pray with persistence. Not because God is like the grumpy neighbor, moved to fulfill a request only out of annoyance, but because it creates godliness in us, it helps us overcome our lack of faith.

The Lord doesn’t tarry or lose track of time when answering our prayers – in fact, he’s always operating in perfect time. The more we become persistent in prayer, the more we can understand that. We can do this because whatever the outcome, we know that the One we pray to is faithful.

Re:Verse passage – Luke 11:5-13 (day two) 

I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs. vs. 8

You do not have because you do not ask. ³ You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. James 4:2b-3

To be clear scripture is not saying that you are always going to get whatever you ask, but it also recognizes we don’t often bring our whole hearts to the Lord. Perhaps we feel like we don’t deserve whatever we are desiring, or we feel a sort of guilt. Why would the Lord think to bless me more than someone else? That kind of self-talk will only lead to a spiritual angst and anxiety that no-one needs. Be in constant dialogue with the Lord, always. You can be sure that he isn’t going to sell all the cattle on a thousand hills just because you ask, but if you are in a never ceasing conversation with the Lord of creation doesn’t it stand to reason that you will start to desire the things he desires? Spend more time with Jesus, and see how that begins to shape your prayer life.

Re:Verse passage – Luke 10:25-37 (day seven)

Go and do the same. vs 37b

This is not a challenge to help the poor (though we should). This is not a cry for more social justice (though justice is good). This is a challenge for heart change.  While we often see ourselves as the Good Samaritan in this story, we are more accurately the lawyer wanting to know, “Have I done enough?” Jesus wants our actions to be based on a feeling of deep concern and love for other human beings regardless of what that person has done for (or to) us. When we “love [Jesus] with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind,” that love will not just overflow on those in our immediate circle, but it overflows on every person who comes across our path.

Re:Verse passage – Luke 10:25-37 (day six)

Little did the expert know, the answer to his question was staring him in the face. Jesus is not only the means through whom the expert could inherit eternal life, but he also is the very embodiment of both great commandments.

Jesus’ arrival in Bethlehem over 2000 years ago was the real life Good Samaritan. Seeing all of us fractured and left for dead, he drew near to tend to our death dealing self-inflicted wounds. He is our good and merciful and loving neighbor.

He is Immanuel, God with us. He is the way, the truth, and the life.

If only the expert of the law had known all that; grateful we do!

Merry Christmas!

Re:Verse passage – Luke 10:25-37 (day five)  But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
The question asked by the lawyer seems innocent and harmless on the surface, but a deeper dig reveals a selfish human heart. What the lawyer is trying to do is to draw a line around his relationships and experiences that will help him feel safe in his worldview and religiously adequate in his keeping of the law. To the Jews of that time “neighbors” were immediate relatives, members of the same tribe, those of Jewish descent, and finally those who hade converted to Judaism.  They were using the law as a wall to insulate and isolate themselves from culture.
Jesus’ answer (in a parable) totally wrecked that line of thinking. Outside the lines.  Tore down the walls. Endless opportunities and possibilities to love and serve others.
Jesus taught that “neighbors” are not only family and friends, but also enemies which implies limitless opportunities and possibilities for us to love our “neighbors”.

Re:Verse passage – Luke 10:25-37 (day four)

We live in a ‘hurry up’, ‘no patience’, ‘my schedule is important’ world.  We get so involved in our own importance and drive to succeed that we often fail to see those around us in need.  In our parable, one would expect the religious leaders to quickly respond to assist the wounded traveler.  They were, after all, the example of how God would have us to live.  Instead, they refused to even pause to investigate.

The Samaritan was different.  He had compassion.  He put aside his own business, and responded to the needs of the Jewish traveler.  He was a neighbor.  Are you a neighbor to those around you?  Are you too busy or uninterested to see opportunities to join God in His work?  Will you put aside your busy schedule to share the gospel or lend a listening ear?  A follower of Christ stands out among the rest…loving your neighbor as yourself speaks volumes to the lost world.

Re:Verse passage – Luke 10:25-37 (day three)

“Then Jesus said to him, ‘Go and do the same.’”

If Jesus points to the socially unacceptable person as exemplary, then the world really has turned upside down. Jesus even concludes the parable by enjoining his questioner to aspire to the character of the reprehensible individual. Two millennia of cultural distance have diluted and dulled the immediacy of the truly ridiculous nature of Jesus’s story structure. To learn from someone you do not like is hard. But to be urged to learn from someone who is spiritually, morally, or theologically offensive to you is a bridge too far. Does God really view the world in such a radically different perspective? Can you actually be that wide of the mark? Perhaps it’s fair to say that if Jesus isn’t shocking you, you aren’t listening.

Re:Verse passage – Luke 10:25-37 (day two)

But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” vs. 29

This is the question that initiated one of the most probing and penetrating parables in all of scripture. When reading this it occurs to me to ask; did he really want to know? There he stood as a student of the law, one who understood textual nuance. This man knew things. He knew enough to engage Jesus with a query about personal righteousness. That knowledge, however was not enough to save him. If we don’t put into practice those lessons taught to us in scripture are we truly Jesus’ disciples? How many of us stand with our toes right up to the line of a spiritual awakening, knowing enough to realize what can come from obedience, only to remain there and not take the leap into action? The world is gasping for breath, and we do well to hear it. What good is it to know these stories and let our neighbors tread the way of death? Jesus didn’t come to tell stories, he came to give the world the breath of life. Time to jump.