Approaching Our Father in Prayer

Yesterday, I was reading from Jonathan Welton's book, "Normal Christianity" and he had section on praying with authority, and out of our identity as sons and daughters of the Father.  It was a really good read and reflection.  This morning I felt like I should read from Luke's Gospel, Chapter 11, and the first several verses are Jesus' teaching on prayer.  Many times teaching on these verses stops with the traditional "Our Father" prayer, but my recognition this morning was that Jesus continued on teaching about prayer over the next several verses and that is what I wanted to reflect upon this morning.

Luke 11:1-13 NIV:

[1]"One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”

[2] He said to them, “When you pray, say: “ 'Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. [3] Give us each day our daily bread. [4] Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation. ' ”

[5] Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; [6] a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.' [7] And suppose the one inside answers, 'Don't bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can't get up and give you anything.' [8] I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.

[9] “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. [10] For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

[11] “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? [12] Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? [13] If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

The first thing that strikes me this morning is that Jesus starts and finishes this teaching with The Father. Essentially He is teaching the disciples about the Father, for we approach Him in Prayer. Skipping past the familiar verses that we know as the "Our Father", in the next verses He instructs the disciples in their approach to be shamelessly audacious (NIV translation).  Note: I reflected on these verses about 3 years ago - http://amomentwithgod-srh.blogspot.com/2014/07/approaching-father-with-shameless.html and am basing my comments off some of my reflection at that time.  This term could just as easily be rendered "expectant faith", for the story He uses to explain the approach is about going to someone in the middle of the night for bread, because you know they have it.

There is no shame in asking for that which You know the Father has and that which You know He wants to give you!  This is exactly what Jesus describes next, the Father's desire to give us what we need.  He uses the example of earthly fathers as a comparison, but explains that the Father is much better (how much more) than earthly Fathers.

Finally, His teaching is to approach the Father as OUR Father, not His, not The, but OUR Father.  He was trying to help the disciples understand that they could approach their Father in the exact same way He approached the Father, for we have essentially the same relationship, that of son and daughter to the Father.

Recently I have been reflecting on the fact that Paul describes us as follows in His letter to the Romans 8:29 NIV:  "For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters."  Jesus is leading the disciples down this same path, He is showing them the way to relate to the Father, to Our Father (Jesus and us) as a loving Father who desires to give good gifts. In the same way that Our Father answers Jesus' prayers, He desires to answer ours. Matthew records Jesus closing statement as follows - Matthew 7:11 NIV: "If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!"

In Summary, Jesus teaches us to pray by approaching the Father with no shame, no fear of His refusal, no doubt as to His love!  We are to approach Him as our loving Father who desires to give us good gifts!  He has what we need, so we just need to approach Him and ask, seek and knock!  We are to do this with expectant faith in the Father's character and ability as the All-Powerful Father.  We don't need to beg, to try to convince Him of our need,  to ask forgiveness, to grovel, to offer up so many works or acts of goodness to move His heart.  We are to approach Him as our Loving, Happy to pour forth Blessing, Daddy, for He is OUR Father.  He is so much better than the best earthly Father!  So let us approach Him with confidence, and engage Him through our relationship, as we would our early Father.  He loves us!