When you pray, how do you pray?
What do you say to God?
What are your prayers like?
Do you pray these words that Jesus taught his disciples to 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 indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial.”
Today we know this prayer as the Lord’s Prayer.
It is one of the first prayers that we learn to say and it is the prayer that we say before we receive Holy Communion.
Do you remember when you first learned this prayer.
I can remember as a small child, saying this prayer over and over until at last I memorized it.
I can recall how happy I was when I finally got it and could recite the prayer from memory.
Maybe you have a similar memory.
Hopefully, this is a prayer that you pray regularly.
And it does not matter if you prefer the traditional style or the contemporary style of this prayer.
The important thing is that we pray the prayer often and with heart.
Jesus teaches us that we are to pray this prayer over and over and over throughout our lives.
Praying this prayer without ceasing and faithfully praying each petition of this prayer.
We are to prayer this prayer with great persistence like the friend in the parable who continues asking for bread over and over and over again until the friend receives the bread.
In the same way we are to prayer the Lord’s prayer continually throughout our lives.
For if we ask it will be given to us, if we search, we will find, and if we knock the door to a life of faith will be opened to us.
In life it is easy to get caught up in praying for things that in the end do not matter at all.
Jesus teaches us today in the Gospel of Luke what we ought to be praying for.
First, we are to pray to God whose very name is holy.
We are not God, only God is God, and we are not alone.
God is above us, around us, and within us. God is here.
We are not alone in life. God is always with us.
That truth is something we talked about in VBS this week with the kids.
God is always with us.
And God’s kingdom is what we are to be seeking.
What is God’s kingdom?
God’s kingdom is where peace, joy, and love are found.
God’s kingdom is where God is.
There can be a heaven on earth and there can be a hell on earth too by the way in which we believe and by the way in which we treat others.
As followers of Jesus, we are to strive for a heaven on earth – that God’s kingdom in heaven is also found here on earth – that God’s kingdom will come in this world.
We are to ask each day for our daily bread.
Daily bread is not bread alone but everything that we need in life.
Each day we ask God to provide us with what we need and then we ask God for the generosity to share the rest with others.
We do not need to hoard God’s gifts and blessings but we are to share and to give as God shares and gives.
Next, we are to pray for forgiveness for all of our sins.
In asking for forgiveness, we then try to forgive others and to show grace to those who have hurt us.
This is a hard one and we certainly do not do this one perfectly.
It is only by God’s grace that are we able to show grace to others.
It is only in receiving God’s forgiveness that we are able to forgive.
Now this does not mean that we forget the harm that was done to us.
Sometimes the pain is so deep that the relationship can never be returned to what it once was.
This is especially true in the case of abuse and sometimes boundaries need to be put into place but even still by God’s grace we are to work to find a way to forgive and to let go trusting all the while in God and God’s ability to restore and to heal.
And lastly, we ask the Lord to save us from the time of trial.
We need God and without God we fall into temptation and without God there is no life.
God is our protector and our savior.
These things we pray for throughout our lives.
God is good and loving and God is ready to hear our prayers and to answer our prayers even before we say the words.
God provides for us all.
God provides for us even if we do not believe in him.
But O, how much greater it is to know that all that we have and all that makes us who we are comes from God.
Knowing this brings about a great inner feeling of gratitude and peace.
The gifts that we have in our lives comes from God.
Even life itself comes from God.
Each of us have the ability to experience peace, happiness, and the presence of the Holy Spirit.
In fact, Jesus said in verse thirteen of today’s Gospel reading that the heavenly father is only too ready to give us the Holy Spirit when we ask him.
This means that right now we can know and feel the very presence of God in our lives.
This means that we can have faith in Jesus.
To live a life of faith is a tremendous blessing from God.
No money, no success, no power can compare to the joy of a simple, humble life of faith.
I have known people in my life who have died without a penny to their name but have died in peace because they had great faith.
The door will be opened.
Jesus waits, always waits for us at the door.
I have always loved that painting of Jesus knocking at the door.
Maybe some of you own that painting in your home.
In that famous painting Jesus becomes the friend in today’s parable, he is the one knocking and waiting.
He is the one who is ever persistent never giving up on us.
He comes not asking for bread.
He comes looking to give bread.
He comes as the bread of life – looking to give us what we need, looking to give us life and salvation.
Jesus will never force his way into our lives.
He gives us free will.
Jesus is at the door, he is waiting for us, and he will never stop believing in us.
He waits even now to hear our prayers.
Lord, teach us to pray. Amen.
