Tonight I want to share not only my thoughts on Chapter 11 from this year but also something I wrote a couple years ago while reading through Luke. First, here are my quick thoughts from this year.
Jesus is...
- The One who knows our thoughts (vs. 17)
- Son of Man (vs. 29)
- Greater than Solomon (vs. 31)
- Greater than Jonah (vs. 32)
- Teacher (vs. 45)
In this chapter Jesus teaches His disciples how to pray. After teaching them the prayer Jesus expounds on why it's important to pray. "And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, it will be opened." (vs. 9-10) He then goes on to say how that we are to be persistent in praying. God is a good Father who grants us His Holy Spirit when we ask; what an amazing Gift that is!
And now, here are my thoughts from a couple years ago:
I’m really enjoying the “Luke Challenge” that I posted a couple weeks ago so I thought I’d share a very encouraging observation about prayer that I’ve had in reading Luke so far.
In the book of Luke the first recorded time of Jesus praying is in chapter 3; right after He is baptized it says “when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” (vs. 21b-22) Jesus prayed and the heavens were opened and the Trinity was shown together! What an awesome reminder of the power of prayer!
I’m only to chapter 11 but find it interesting to note that Jesus taking time...making space...in His day to devote to prayer is mentioned in chapters 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10 & 11. (I’m going to be on the lookout for it in the remaining chapters as well). So, taking time away is obviously an important example He wants us to get. Jesus calls the first disciples in chapter 5 and chooses the 12 apostles in chapter 6 yet it isn’t until chapter 11 before it’s recorded that they asked Him to teach them to pray. They were excited to see all that Jesus was doing and to participate in His ministry but it seems that it took some time before they realized the important role that prayer had in His ministry.
This got me thinking how easy it is to often neglect prayer forgetting that our power, strength, direction, wisdom and source of joy is found in communicating with our loving Father. We have the Holy Spirit in us and Jesus interceding at the right hand of the Father for us. When we pray we are communing/interacting with all three persons of the Trinity! My prayer is that I will remember the importance of making space for daily prayer.
No comments:
Post a Comment