Introduction
In the Gospels, the Lord Jesus teaches us how to pray and glorify the Father. It is important to remember that we cannot approach the Father based on our own merits; we can only come to Him with faithful hearts through the Lord Jesus. All our prayers addressed to the Trinity of God (God the Father, God the Son, Jesus Christ, and God the Holy Spirit) must be offered in the name of the Lord Jesus, the Son of God. He is the only One who has the authority and power to bring our prayers to the Father, as He is the sinless Lamb of God who died for the sins of the world.
In this blog, we reflect on Luke 11:1-13, where the Lord Jesus teaches the disciples the Lord’s prayer and the parable of the heavenly Father’s love towards all His children who come to ask, seek, and knock. Out of His love, the Father gives the Holy Spirit to those who seek and ask Him. By asking, seeking, and knocking, we can receive the greatest gift from the Father: the baptism in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the only true teacher of the Word of God who can lead us to a true understanding of it.
Ask, Seek, and Knock
In Luke 11:1-13 the Lord Jesus teaches how to pray and the importance of prayer; and He shows us that the Father is merciful and good.
Luke 11:1 And it happened, as He was offering prayer in a certain place, that when He finished, one of His disciples said to Him, Lord, teach us to pray, even as John also taught his disciples.
Comments Luke 11:1. “One of His disciples said to Him, Lord, teach us to pray, …” This disciple of the Lord is still looking to John’s disciples and to how John teaches; as we can see clearly, he compares both masters he knows. But we can also see that this disciple looks forward to being taught by the Lord Jesus how to pray, even though they have seen someone else do it in one way. In their hearts, they want the way of the Lord Himself, not another master’s way; they want the Lord Jesus, whom they consider their master, to teach them the right way of praying.
2 And He said to them, Whenever you pray, say, Heavenly Father, Hallowed be Thy name. Let Thy kingdom come.
Comments Luke 11:2. This verse shows that we must start the prayer by glorifying the Father and praying for the kingdom of God to come (see Comments Matthew 6:9-10).
For verses 2 to 4, see Comments Matthew 6:9-13. The Lord Jesus gives us a pattern for prayer in these verses, and when we pray, we should follow it. Before we bring our needs to the Lord, we must glorify the Lord in heaven, then take our needs to ask for help. After glorifying, believe that the Lord will hear all our needs, say the needs, and end with glorifying the Lord again (see Matthew 6:13).
We can see differences between the prayers in the Gospels of Luke and Matthew. In the Gospel of Luke, the Lord presents a shorter version of the prayer that He taught His disciples. This raises the question: were these prayers spoken in the same context? The Bible is one, and the Lord’s prayer in this gospel and another also are the same but given with different purposes (that is, different audiences receiving, then and now), but if we mix both prayers together, it will become one prayer; all have the same meaning and one purpose, in teaching. In the Gospel of Luke, we can see a briefer version of the prayer that all can use when time is limited in the front, but the main points remain the same because the Lord gave one prayer for all situations. We, humans, can pick only key verses to make the prayer shorter to address the situation, but the prayer will never change its meaning if we take it from the verses themselves.
3 Grant us daily our necessary bread.
Comments Luke 11:3. When we pray this verse, we also tell our needs to the Lord; at the same time, we must leave them with the Lord and trust that the Lord will provide for all our needs. Here, along with this verse, we can enumerate our specific needs to the Lord and leave them with the Lord.
4 And forgive us our sins; as we ourselves also forgive everyone that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. (“But deliver us from evil” see Sinaiticus codex.)
Comments Luke 11:4. “And forgive us our sins …” When we pray, we always need to ask the Lord to forgive our sins. In this world, humans lack the heart to forgive each other. When we read this verse, we can plainly see that we all want to receive forgiveness, but we do not wish to give it to anyone; this verse clearly tells us that what we want to receive, we must also give.
“And lead us not into temptation …” We know that the Lord does not lead anyone into temptation. Therefore, one might ask what this saying “and lead us not into temptation” really means. When the verse says, “lead us not,” it does not mean the Lord is the One who leads us to fall; rather, it means we ourselves lead us to fall. And, when we pray this way, the Lord will block the temptation, but if we do not pray, we will fall into temptation by ourselves.
By this portion of the verse, the Lord wants to remind all readers that the Lord loves all humans. He does not want any human to fall into the trap of the evil one, but, by human nature, humans will try to find joy for themselves by putting unclean things in front of their eyes and thus letting themselves be tempted. Those unclean things will feed their hearts to have a need, and that is the temptation to lead the soul to lose the way. But the Lord also gives us a way out when our minds are not straight, so we can come back to the straight path and not let that temptation take over; therefore, go to the Lord by reading the Bible and meditating on the Lord’s teaching.
5 And He said to them, Which of you who has a friend, and will go to him at midnight, and might say to him, Friend, lend me three loaves, 6 since a friend of mine came to me from a journey, and I have nothing to put before him; 7 and that from inside answering might say, Trouble me not; already the door has been shut, and my children are with me in the bed; I cannot rise up to give you. 8 I say to you, Though having risen up, he will not give to him because of being his friend, yet because of his persistence, having risen, he will give him as much as he needs.
Comments Luke 11:5-8. The Lord Jesus has given an example of a typical life situation: when we have problems on this earth, we will look for help among humans and go and seek it even in the nighttime. But when unexpected troubles come our way, there is one place that is never too far, and the door is always open; lead your heart to that place by meditating and praying to the Lord of life for mercy and help. As the last part of verse 8 says, he will give him as much as he needs. In the same way, the Lord Himself is the One who will provide the help you need; if you are persistent in asking, the Lord will have mercy.
9 And I say to you, Be you asking, and it will be given to you; Be you seeking, and you will find; Be you knocking, and it will be opened to you.
Comments Luke 11:9. For verses 9 to 13, refer to Matthew 7:7-11. For this verse, see Comments Matthew 7:7.
10 For everyone, the one asking receives, and the one seeking finds, and to the one knocking it will be opened.
Comments Luke 11:10. See Comments Matthew 7:8. This verse mainly relates to faith and understanding of the Holy Word, because every true believer who comes seeking help from the beloved Son of God will receive that help in understanding.
11 And of which of you a father, the son will ask for a fish, and he for a fish will give him a serpent?
Comments Luke 11:11. As this verse says, you, as a parent, know to love your children and to give them the best first; think about this as parents.
12 Or he should ask an egg, will he give him a scorpion?
Comments Luke 11:12. This saying is given only in this gospel. Here, also think about and compare the egg and the scorpion: the egg is fragile, but the scorpion is a violent creature. The Lord has brought these two together in this verse for all humans to compare between your children, which are like an egg, and the evil world, which is like a scorpion. Do you want to put your children among the evil in the world without the protection? As the egg has an eggshell, the protection here means the knowledge about God of all creation and His love and mercy, and that you must teach your children as a parent that He is our shield in all.
13 If you therefore, being evil, know to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those that ask Him?
Comments Luke 11:9-13. The purpose of this parable is for the disciples to think: you are humans and know to give good things to your children, which are earthly things, but the heavenly Father will give you good things from heaven, that is, the Holy Spirit. This parable is a comparison of love: a comparison between the love of an earthly father and the love of the heavenly Father.
Comments Luke 11:13. In Matthew 7:11, the verse says, “how much more will your Father in the heavens give good things to those asking Him!” Here, in this verse, we have “how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those that ask Him?” We should consider how to interpret these verses collectively. Both verses have exactly the same meaning, but pay attention to “good things” and the “Holy Spirit”; these two are the same.
Conclusions
As followers of the Lord Jesus, we must embrace His teachings and strive to follow His example in all aspects of our lives. Just as the Lord Jesus prayed to the Father, we too should pray to the Father. He teaches us how to pray, and we should adhere to His guidance. He was baptized in water, and we should also be baptized in the name of God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ), and God the Holy Spirit, as instructed in Matthew 28:19. Furthermore, because of the Father’s love for the Lord Jesus and our love for Him, the Father extends His mercy to us. The Father grants good things, namely the gift of the Holy Spirit, to those who pray continuously to Him and seek His good gift. The Holy Spirit is our perfect cover for our souls against the attacks of the evil one, so we must knock at the door of the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus and ask His mercy to bless us with the precious gift of the baptism in the Holy Spirit. When we are baptized in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit touches our souls deeply and resides within us. We can always hear His gentle voice when we lead faithful lives through reading, meditating on, and practicing the teachings of the Word of God. We believe that the Bible is dictated word by word by the Holy Spirit, and therefore we need the Holy Spirit to guide us in understanding the Word of God. We must use the Bible to read and meditate on the Holy Word, guided by the Holy Spirit in our hearts. The Lord Jesus must be the foundation of our faith, and the Word of God must be the balance for discerning what is right or wrong, rather than relying on the opinions and practices of others.
Meditation Tasks
- We encourage all believers to read and meditate on the first two chapters of the Book of Acts. We also suggest considering the pursuit of baptism in the Holy Spirit. Additionally, we recommend that readers check out our comprehensive blog article titled “The Baptism in the Holy Spirit” for further insights on this topic.