Monday Devo

Read Luke 11:1-13. In the first few verses I'm really interested in how the disciples asked to be taught to pray. It appears that Jesus prayed alone - a lot. You would think if he prayed with his disciples regularly that they would know "how to pray." Perhaps the disciples are wanting to know how to pray with power. They recently couldn't cast out a demon because of their lack of praying. Probably their problem in Luke 9 with the demon was in part due to a lack of a lifestyle of prayer. Paul would later say, "pray without ceasing." I Thess 5:17. 

A lifestyle of prayer is where we learned to think and breath prayer throughout our day. It involves as much listening as it does talking. It involves hiding God's word in our heart so we know his character and works so well - we can anticipate what the father would do in each situation. Remember Jesus only did what he saw the father doing. John 5:18.

The rest of the chapter is about persistence and boldness in prayer. As we quoted last week Paul speaks of the boldness we can have now through Christ, "Let us approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." Hebrews 4:16 Verse 7-8 are not saying God is indifferent to our prayers - its just illustrative that persistence gets noticed. 

Only recently have I found myself comfortably being bold. I want to be so respectful in prayer. I want the fear of the Lord (which is a sanctuary Isaiah 8:13-14) to permeate my life - especially my prayer life. In the month of March several times when prayer for Encounter people who were really hurting or stuck in sin - I became more bold than ever in prayer. Almost demanding God to do something - I wasn't asking, or seeking - I was knocking. I got very loud (no one was i the house!) and I literally begged the father to fix lives. 

Jesus sweat drops of blood in prayer - I was quite a ways from that - but I think we can be much more bold than we usually are. James 4 says - we don't have - because we don't ask. Maybe this passage says - we don't have because we don't beg. The father has good things for us - how persistent will we be? Daniel prayed and fasted for 21 days in Daniel 10 before he got what he wanted. Are we that determined to see the kingdom come - God's will done?

questions

1) what is something you think you need to approach God boldly for - more persistently?

2) why do you think God doesn't just give us what we want the first time we flippantly ask?

3) what might it look like for you to beg God for something?

prayer

Lord we know it will take more faith to pray this way - increase our faith. Lord we are tired of powerless Christianity. We are tired of feeling defeated and distant from you - the almighty God of the universe. Teach us the lifestyle of prayer you long for us to have. Saturate our minds with your thoughts as we memorize scripture. Teach how the begging perfects our love and cast out all fear!

***after reflecting on questions 2 - I think part of the answer is that God wants to perfect humility and other parts of our character in the process of our prayer life.