Day 292 or October the 19th. Let us pray. Our
thoughts today come from Luke chapter 11 verse
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. And now the big picture surrounding
this verse. Almost halfway through his gospel,
Luke now concentrates on the southern ministry
of Jesus. These next six months or so will climax
with the crucifixion, but there are many adventures
in the life of Messiah still to be recorded.
One of his early actions is to send out 70 of
his followers to put into practice what they'd
learned from their master. Being a Jew, Jesus
sends out 70. which is the same number as Moses
had elders, the number of years the Jews spent
in exile, and also the number that made up the
Sanhedrin. Luke records the most famous prayer
in the world, but his version is only about half
the length of that found in Matthew. There is
a church in Jerusalem which is called the Paternoster
Church, and in which may be found scores of versions
of the Lord's Prayer in many languages. It is
a wonderful sensation to hear someone read the
Hebrew version, or even better, the Aramaic version,
as you are then hearing the prayer just as the
disciples would have done. A very special moment
indeed. And now today's action step. Most of
us never master the art of praying, and it seems
the disciples, even with God's Son in their midst,
have the same problem. Luke gives us a clue for
achieving success when he tells us that Jesus
had a special place to pray. I have been in retreat
centres where a prayer room had been established
for many years, and you could sense the years
of dedicated praying that had taken place there
as soon as you enter. Of course, our special
place doesn't have to be static. Some people
redeem the time by praying when walking the dog
or jogging. whichever place we choose, we need
to follow Jesus' example.