Devotional:

“Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” And he said to them, “When you pray, say:

“Father, hallowed be your name.
    Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread,
    and forgive us our sins,
    for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And lead us not into temptation.”

And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything’? I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs. 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. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

— Luke 11: 1-13

How do I pray for revival? What do I pray? Is God even listening to me? Will God answer me? We all have these questions at some point in our faith walk. The way Luke unpacks these questions in this passage can be a bit overwhelming and confusing. Jesus’s parables confusing? Never! Let’s walk through this together.

Verse 1-2. Jesus gives the disciples a somewhat eye-opening approach to prayer. He tells his disciples that “when you pray,” you show reverence to Him first by calling him “Father, hallowed be your name.” Hallowed means holy, sacred, revered or respected. He requires the highest honor. When we pray, before anything else comes out of our mouths, we are to acknowledge this. At the same time, he is telling the disciples to become more intimate with God through their prayers.

“The Father” is translated from the Aramaic word Abba, or better understandable to us as dad, stressing a more personal intimacy with God. We recognize He is worthy of honor, yet, because He is our personal Savior we can call him dad. Next, he says “your kingdom come.” This is the acknowledgment that we believe He is going to fulfill His promise to us and that one day, we will be with him.

Verse 3. “Give us this day, our daily bread.” God is our sustenance and complete satisfaction. All that we need comes from Him. He is the only thing that can fully and finally satisfy us.

Verse 4. “And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.” This verse is the acknowledgment that we are sinners, constantly in need of His forgiveness as we, too, should forgive others. “And lead us not into temptation.” We pray for God to protect us from the enemy that comes to kill, steal and destroy us. It is Satan who tempts us, tests us and tries to break us away from our heavenly dad.

Pretty straightforward, right? Then comes the parable starting in verse 5.

This parable is known as the parable of the persistent friend. I believe the word “impudence” in verse 8 is better translated as shamelessness or boldness. God doesn’t sit around and wait until you’ve come to him just enough times before he answers you. He is not selfish! He is just and knows all the things we have done, are doing and will do! He has the entire picture in front of him and knows what is best.

God’s not waiting for a certain level of persistence before He answers. He is jealous for us and wants us to rely completely on Him. When we rely completely on Him, we pray. We pray hard. We pray boldly and shamelessly. We pray until it feels like our life depends on it! God is telling us we only need to rely on Him and we are to never stop coming to Him with our hurts, wants and needs. Prayer is a discipline that can only deepen our need for Him and melt away the need for this world.

We don’t know why the man in the parable waited to give the neighbor a helping hand. But, in time, he did. If the neighbor had given up, the man wouldn’t have had the chance to help him. I believe this passage stresses to us that God’s timing is not our own. 

The point of the parable is that we cannot comprehend God’s ways and God’s timing, just like we could never imagine a neighbor telling a starving family to go away without helping them. We cannot begin to know what God knows, and because of that, we can become complacent or frustrated because our prayers aren’t being answered when we want and how we want.

When we surrender ourselves completely to Him, we are able to pray more boldly, ask more confidently, and cry out with reckless abandonment. God has been waiting for us to show Him that we do trust the plans He has for us, even when we can’t see them or understand them right away.

These weeks leading up to Saturated, pray for revival. Pray for our church, protection, direction and blessings. Pray as if you really believe God has your life and this church in His hands. Pray as if you believe He knows what you need and sees what you don’t need. Pray daily and ask him to reveal himself in every decision, every task, every hard conversation, every relationship and every single part of your life.

Father, I love You. You alone are worthy of all honor and praise. You always love me; You always know what is best for me. Forgive me when I struggle to believe You work in all things for my good. Help me see the good in others just as You see the good in me. Hold me close to you so that I may resist the temptations of this world. Give me strength to lean on You in all things, even when I can’t see. Amen.