Luke – Wide Open Doors!
Prayer. What is it? Why do we do it? Prayer is as essential to life as breathing in and out. We breathe in the oxygen we need to make our highly sophisticated chemical factories inside our bodies function and work. We exhale the created waste of carbon dioxide which we no longer need. Each breath has purpose. God created these bodies to breathe and to keep on breathing until we take our last breath!
Prayer is the breath of Life with Jesus! Prayer is breathing in the Holy Spirit with all that pleases God. Prayer is laying out who we are and what we think we need before God. Prayer is listening to God speak to us about what we really need. Prayer helps us to grow in His Spirit in order to ultimately produce the Spiritual fruits of what is beautiful in God’s eyes…the characteristics of Christ. You can read the list of fruit production that we must keep on bearing in Galatians 5!
Through prayer time with God, the Father, we exhale all the waste produced by past and current sins. We exhale all that we need to get rid of in order to live holy and well as get ready to take in more and more of Jesus, the Breath of Life!
Keep on praying….Keep on breathing!
Luke 11, New Living Translation
Once Jesus was in a certain place praying. As he finished, one of his disciples came to him and said, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”
2 Jesus said, “This is how you should pray:
“Father, may your name be kept holy.
May your Kingdom come soon.
3 Give us each day the food we need,
4 and forgive us our sins,
as we forgive those who sin against us.
And don’t let us yield to temptation.”
5 Then, teaching them more about prayer, he used this story:
“Suppose you went to a friend’s house at midnight, wanting to borrow three loaves of bread. You say to him, 6 ‘A friend of mine has just arrived for a visit, and I have nothing for him to eat.’ 7 And suppose he calls out from his bedroom, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is locked for the night, and my family and I are all in bed. I can’t help you.’ 8 But I tell you this—though he won’t do it for friendship’s sake, if you keep knocking long enough, he will get up and give you whatever you need because of your shameless persistence.
9 “And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.11 “You fathers—if your children ask for a fish, do you give them a snake instead? 12 Or if they ask for an egg, do you give them a scorpion? Of course not! 13 So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.”
Our Heavenly Father,
Hallowed and holy is Your Name. May Your Kingdom come and reign in us and through us giving us Your breath of life that drives us to You always. May Your will be done as we lay our will down before you. May Your will be done in every detail of our lives on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day all you know we will need to be and do what Your will commands. And lead us far away from temptations to do less that your will. Deliver us from evil and evil’s schemes to stunt our growth and our fruit bearing. Nothing, absolutely nothing is too hard for you. Everything is impossible to achieve by ourselves, apart from you. We need You every hour. Thank you for being with us. To you be all glory, honor and praise forevermore. It is all about you! Only You.
In Jesus Name, Amen. I believe. I’m listening.
“And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.” What a blessed assurance! (And I’m singing…)
