Luke 11:1 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.”

Our Father in Heaven may your Name be honored. (New Living Translation) Our Father in Heaven may your Name be honored.

May your Kingdom come soon. May Your Will be done here on Earth, just as it is in Heaven.

Give us our food for today.

Forgive us our sins, just as we have forgiven those who have sinned against us.

And don’t let us yield to temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

For Yours is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

Luke 11: 5-8 “The Parable of A Friend at Midnight”

Luke 11: 9-10 (Matt. 7: 7-8) 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.”

Luke 11: 11-13 (Matt. 7: 9-11) 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 [good gifts] to those who ask him!”

As we’ll also see in the next parable, Jesus is clearly giving us permission to pray to God the Father with shameless audacity, which is fueled by a sincere faith in Him.

Luke 18:1 “Then Jesus told His disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.”

Luke 18: 1-8

This parable is really a “twin” of The Friend at Midnight in that it contrasts a bad human example (a friend & a judge) with the perfect, loving and good God that we pray to. He asks that we persevere in prayer.

Luke 18: 9-14 “The Parable of The Pharisee and The Tax Collector” 

This parable begins with the important lesson of how we approach God in prayer (we should be audacious in requests, but humble in spirit), but then deals with the deeper danger of self-righteousness for which we always need to work to remain self-aware of.

May we all pray with… Shameless audacity, fueled by our faith in God Persistent perseverance, resting in God’s love for us Humility, coming from a sober understanding of self, others, and God