23rd Week After Pentecost – TUESDAY
The “Our Father” is a model of prayer.
The “Our Father” was taught by the Lord as a model of how to pray. The teaching does not end with the recitation of the prayer! IMMEDIATELY after the Lord finishes reciting the words that we know so well; He tells us we must pursue God in prayer. Too many recite the “Our Father” in the morning or evening, or perhaps even both times and let this suffice as prayer for the day. This is not what the Lord taught us.
It is easy to learn prayers, but the Lord does not teach us to say prayers by rote here. We must be as the man who goes to his friend at Midnight. We must pray with consistency, insistency and expectation. It does us no good to know the right words to say if we do not say them in the right way.
Have we learned to pray as the Lord has taught us?
Luke 11:1-10 And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. 2 And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. 3 Give us day by day our daily bread. 4 And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. 5 And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves; 6 For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him? 7 And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee. 8 I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. 9 And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. 10 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
Bibliography
The Explanation of the Holy Gospel according to St Luke, by Blessed Theophylact, published by Chrysostom Press - http://www.chrysostompress.org/.
Priest Seraphim Nov 5/18 2008. St Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church , McKinney, Texas
https://www.orthodox.net//scripture/pen-tue-23_2008+the-our-father-a-model-for-prayer_luke11-1-10.pdf
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