The disciples ask Jesus how to pray

In Luke 11:1-4, Jesus was praying and when he finished praying, one of the disciples asked Jesus how to pray. What an opportunity! I am glad that one of the disciples decided to ask Jesus about praying because as a Christian, this is one of the most important things we can do in our faith walk.

Jesus responded on how to pray with, "Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation."

First, I think Jesus wanted the prayer to start out with reverence on who we address our prayers to. We are lifting up our thoughts, concerns, and love to the God of the universe. God's name has many names and Jesus recognizes this by offering hallows (or honor as holiness) to his name.

"Your kingdom come," is a phrase that is the first thing Jesus instructs the disciples to ask for. How often do we pray where we ask God first (and maybe only) for the things that we want and are concerned about? Jesus wants us to pray about the kingdom of God to come first in our prayers and thoughts before we think about what we think we need.

"Give us each day our daily bread," allows for us to ask God to provide for our needs. I fully believe that when we put our hope in the Lord, God will give us what we need to carry out his will. Daily bread can also be encouragement when your day doesn't go well, or when we experience hardships.

"Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us," is an important command from Jesus because this is not easy to do in stretch of a daily grind. We are wired to get frustrated, have angry thoughts or feelings, lose our patience, and not want to be around others at times. Jesus says that we need to ask God to first forgive us our sins. I think one reason is that we need to ask God to cleanse us of our sins before we can be ready to forgive others. These actions go hand in hand. God will give us the perspective to forgive others when we recognize our own fallings.

"And lead us not into temptation," is the last part that Luke mentioned that Jesus told the disciples. With our free will, I believe God allows for temptation to exist but it is up to us whether or not we succumb to our temptations and fall into sin.