Jesus And Prayer

1 day ago

3 min read

And I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you. Luke 11: 9.

Before we get to the main text, we need to pass through these pathways. We need to have this path clear, and free from all obstacles in our way, which keep us from this single truth. The disciples want Jesus to, teach us to pray.

It’s like a person who has gone to a driving instructor and asks, teach me to drive. All the person wants, is to be able to drive. There is nothing about her, or him, learning about driving, how it came about and all the types of vehicles and drivers there are. The person who wants to learn to drive does not even own a vehicle and uses the instructor’s vehicle to begin learning. There is nothing about the person wanting to learn about driving. That can be done theoretically, without ever getting behind a wheel and driving. No! The person wants to be engaged in the action of driving, the actual act of driving.

This is how it is with the disciples who have asked Jesus to teach them to pray. This is no theoretical teaching. Jesus is actually having them pray. Listen to what Jesus says in answer to this request to teach them to pray. So He said to them, When you pray say. Luke 11: 2a.

Just as the driving instructor puts you at the wheel, to teach you to drive, so Jesus puts you to pray, to teach you to pray. The disciples are given to pray as their Teacher Jesus tells them how to pray, by giving them words to say, to speak. Right there and then, under the instructions of their Teacher, they pray. Yes! They are praying, then and there.

Having briefly set out that which precipitated our main text, we return to it. And I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you. Luke 11: 9.

After Jesus tells them what to say in prayer, He goes on to instruct and apprise them on the great merits, virtues and advantages of prayer. How thankful we must always and ever be, when we stop to think of this most blessed favour and goodness given to us. We are taught to pray by Jesus the Man of Great Prayer. He can only teach what is true, for lies, deceit and pretence find no welcome in Him. Jesus Himself is Truth. Give unending thanks to our Teacher. If Jesus can only give what is true, then we know by faith with thanksgiving that these words of His are without error, pretence or deceit. We give thanks that this word is all truth, from the first letter to the last letter.

Although we know the text well, let us come to it with open, thankful hearts. Jesus, Great and Mighty One in prayer, has given His entire weight of Universal Authority, Ownership and Supremacy to what He is saying. I say to you…, I, Son of God and Son of Man, say to you. I, Immanuel, say to you. I, the Alpha and the Omega, say to you. I, the One who is and who was and who is to come, say to you. I, the Almighty, say to you.

Let us no longer allow what has now become traditional talk among believers, to inform what we speak and believe about prayer. All the different opinions, ideas, suggestions and pronouncements about prayer that have been bandied about to the point that some are seen as gospel, must be resisted. Anything that cuts in what Jesus clearly stated about prayer, making prayer of humans and no longer of God, must be fiercely fought and vehemently rejected.

And I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you.