Today's main idea: We can bring our needs honestly to the Father, keep praying when answers seem slow, and ask for mercy without trying to prove ourselves.
Read Slowly
In Day 8, Jesus taught us to act on his words. Today he helps us learn to pray.
Prayer can feel difficult. We may wonder what to say, whether God hears, or why we are still waiting. Jesus speaks to these questions by showing us what the Father is like.
We Can Ask Jesus to Teach Us
The disciples see Jesus praying and ask him to teach them.
He gives them words that begin with the Father. They ask for God's name to be honored and his kingdom to come. God's kingdom means his rule. We are asking for his will to be done and his good purposes to be fulfilled.
Then the prayer turns to daily bread, forgiveness, and help against temptation.
Food, money, relationships, and the choices we face can all belong in prayer. We do not have to make our needs sound more religious.
Jesus teaches the disciples to name the Father before naming their needs. Prayer begins with a relationship and makes room for both God's purposes and daily dependence. Bread, forgiveness, and help belong in the same conversation.
I can approach God without polishing my life first. An honest account of a strained relationship or a needed meal fits the prayer Jesus gives us.
Remember: My ordinary need belongs in a conversation with my Father.
Jesus Encourages Us to Keep Asking
Jesus describes a man who receives a visitor late at night and has no food to offer. He goes to a friend for bread.
The man asks so he can feed someone else. This gives a practical shape to the prayer Jesus has just taught: give us our daily bread. The words “us” and “our” make room for other people's needs alongside our own. We can bring a neighbor's hunger, a friend's worry, or a family's struggle before the Father.
The friend does not want to get up. The door is shut, and the household is in bed. Still, the man asks boldly, and his need is met.
Jesus uses the story to encourage us to ask instead of quietly giving up.
The next part gives the reason for our confidence: our Father is good and generous.1
The visitor's need sends the host to someone who can supply bread. His lack becomes a reason to ask on another person's behalf. Jesus then directs our confidence toward the Father's generosity.
When I cannot give someone all the help they need, I can still bring that need to God. Continuing to pray is one way of continuing to care while I seek whatever practical help I can offer.
Remember: What I cannot provide for someone can become what I ask the Father to give.
The Father Gives Good Gifts
Jesus tells us to ask, seek, and knock.
Then he asks us to think about parents. Even imperfect parents know that a hungry child needs food instead of something harmful.
If human parents can give good gifts, how much more can we trust our heavenly Father?
Luke names the Holy Spirit as the gift the Father gives to those who ask. God offers his own presence and help.
The gift of the Spirit brings us back to Luke 3:21–22, where Jesus prays and the Spirit descends on him. The Son who lives in relationship with the Father now teaches us to ask the Father for his Spirit. Prayer draws us into a life of dependence on God's presence and help.
The gift of the Spirit shows the personal depth of the Father's generosity. He gives his own presence and help to those who ask. Jesus teaches us to approach a Father who knows how to give what is good.
Alongside asking for a situation to change, I can ask for the Spirit's help to live faithfully within it. I need God's work in me as I wait for his work around me.
Remember: I can ask for God's help within me while waiting for circumstances to change.
God Cares About Justice
Luke tells us why Jesus shares the next story: so people will keep praying and not lose heart.
A widow keeps asking a judge for justice. He does not respect God or care about people. Eventually, he acts because she will not stop coming.
The judge shows us what God is not like. God already cares about his people and about what is right.
Jesus asks us to reason from the story: if even a selfish judge finally acts, we have much more reason to trust God to bring justice.
The widow's repeated plea concerns a wrong that needs to be addressed. Jesus directs discouraged people toward God's commitment to justice. Persistent prayer takes that commitment seriously.
When I am weary of naming the same hurt, I can return to the character of the one hearing me. I can ask for what is right and seek an honest next step while entrusting final justice to him.
Remember: A long wait does not make justice matter less to God.
Waiting Gives Us a Place to Practice Trust
Jesus ends by asking whether the Son of Man will find faith when he comes.
The question turns our attention toward our response while we wait. Will we keep trusting God when his timing is hard to understand?
His promise of justice gives his people a reason to keep crying out to God as they await his coming.
Continuing to pray does not mean we feel confident every moment. It can mean saying, “God, I am discouraged, but I am still bringing this to you.”
Jesus ends with a question about faith when he comes. The waiting people have something to practice now: continuing to bring their cries to God. Their hope looks toward his promised justice.
Discouragement can be part of the prayer itself. I can say that I am tired and still ask for help. Returning to God with that truth is a real act of trust.
Remember: I can keep turning toward God before I feel strong again.
We Come for Mercy, Not to Impress God
Jesus tells a story about two men who pray at the temple.
The Pharisee lists his religious actions and compares himself favorably with other people. His prayer shows how much he trusts his own goodness.
The tax collector stands at a distance and asks God to have mercy on him as a sinner.
Compare these prayers with the prayer Jesus taught earlier. That prayer begins with the Father's name and kingdom, then admits our need for bread, forgiveness, and help. The Pharisee fills his prayer with his own achievements. The tax collector comes with the honest need Jesus has taught his disciples to bring.2
This connection helps us examine our own prayers. We can come with confidence in the Father's goodness and humility about ourselves. Both belong in the same conversation with God.
Jesus says the tax collector goes home justified. That means God receives him as right before him. He receives mercy instead of earning acceptance through an impressive record.
The warning is personal. Prayer has gone wrong if it leaves me proud of myself and looking down on others.
The tax collector comes with nothing to present except his need for mercy, and Jesus says he goes home accepted by God. The Pharisee's comparisons have kept him focused on his own standing. Jesus directs our confidence toward God's mercy.
When prayer becomes an account of how well I have done, I can pause and confess a real need. I can come honestly without measuring myself against someone else's failure.
Remember: God's mercy gives me a reason to pray without proving myself better than anyone else.
What We Learn About Jesus
Jesus prays and helps others learn to pray. He knows the Father and teaches us to trust his goodness.
He welcomes need, encourages discouraged people, and challenges the pride that makes us compare ourselves with others.
He invites us to keep coming honestly.
How the Readings Fit Together
The first reading teaches us to ask a good Father for what we need. The second teaches us to keep trusting him and come humbly for mercy.
The two neighboring stories in the second reading deepen that lesson. The widow keeps asking for justice; the tax collector asks for mercy. Together they teach persistent trust in God's character and an honest admission of our need. Jesus gives us reasons to keep coming, and words with which to come.
Take a Moment with Jesus
- Whose need could I keep bringing to God even though I cannot solve it myself?
- Where do I need the Spirit's help within me while I wait for something around me to change?
- What would I confess if I stopped using someone else's failures to defend my own standing?
Prayer
Jesus, teach me to pray. Help me keep coming when I am discouraged. Make me honest about my sin and grateful for mercy. Teach me to trust the Father's goodness without looking down on anyone else. Amen.
One Thing to Do
Pray slowly through Luke 11:1–4. Pause to name a need after each part. Bring one request you have stopped mentioning, and end by asking for mercy as the tax collector does in Luke 18:13.
Carry This with You
I can come to the Father with need, questions, and failure. Jesus teaches me to keep asking and trust his goodness.
Sources Consulted
Source citations
-
David Lose, Commentary on Jesus’ teaching about prayer, Working Preacher, Luther Seminary. On bold asking, hospitality, and confidence in the Father who gives the Spirit. ↩
-
Meda Stamper, Commentary on the Pharisee and tax collector, Working Preacher, Luther Seminary. On the contrast with the prayer Jesus taught and the need for God’s mercy. ↩
What is one thing you want to remember?
Your progress stays on this device.