My vacation is over and I thank God we arrived home safe from hurt, harm and danger. Some drivers on the highways are so disrespectful. They cut in and out of traffic causing accidents. People seem to not respect rain and slick highways. They still speed above the speed limit as if where they are going is their top mission. Anyway, we are home and getting things together to start off with a refreshed attitude and mind for the better things that are coming our way this year.
Hope your vacation and holiday was fun filled without any distressing matters.
Our lesson for this Sunday, January 4, 2015 is coming from Luke 11: 1-13. And as we begin to look at this eleventh chapter, the subject is prayer. Prayer is the theme of the opening portion of this chapter. In fact, from verse 1 through 13 our Lord instructs us about prayer. And it is in response to a question that is asked in verse 1. "It came about that while He was praying in a certain place after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, 'Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples."
How are we to pray?...was the question. "Lord, teach us to pray." That prompts this whole section on prayer. In verses 2 through 4 you have the Lord's instruction on prayer. In verses 5 through 8 the Lord's eagerness to hear prayer. In verses 9 and 10 the Lord's certainty to answer prayer. And in verses 11 through 13 the Lord's desire to give the best to those who pray. Here then is wonderful instruction about the matter of prayer.
You will also notice that the first elements have to do with God and His glory and the second have to do with man and his need. Prayer starts from the Word of God and it starts with the glory of God. And then it comes to human need only after God has been set in His prime place. Prayer then is not an attempt to bend the will of God. It's not an attempt to change the will of God. It's not an attempt to get out of God something you have a right to demand from Him. It's not the foolishness of trying to speak things into existence, whether or not God wants them as the word/faith movement would lead poor deceived people to think. It is simply praying from the text of Scripture from that formula or that framework given to us, setting God in His rightful place of sovereign glory and submitting your life to Him and to His purposes. This prayer is a summary of all other prayers. It covers all our earthly needs, all our spiritual needs and give expression to all our heavenly aspirations. To learn to pray from this prayer is to grasp every possible desire of the praying heart, to embrace all the world of spiritual requirements, to gather into your arms every divine promise, every human sorrow, human need, every Christian longing. It's all here in this prayer. And it's all for the glory of God. That's why Jesus said, "If you ask anything in My name, I'll do it that the Father may be...what?...glorified."
Here are two cards that go along with our scripture:
Love,
Lois
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