Prayer and Our Father’s Goodness
This coming Lord’s Day, on the very last day of the year, we will be privileged to assemble ourselves together in worship and to open the Word of the Lord one final time in 2017. Our sermon will come from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 11, and verses 11-13.
With Advent having come (and now departed so quickly!), we have arrived at the last Sunday and final day of the year. And over the last several weeks, in anticipation of this very Lord’s Day, I have sought to discover a text of Holy Scripture that we might examine together as we conclude another year, and now look forward to the beginning of 2018. And in this search for an appropriate Biblical text and subject, I have been especially sensitive to the needs of my own heart. And, more specifically, to what I find myself in need of as we anticipate all that the Lord might bring into our lives in the 12 months that are before us. I have asked myself, what is the final thing I need to consider as we end 2017, and the first thing I need to focus upon and keep in view as we begin 2018?
In answering that question, I have been drawn to this compelling episode from the life of our Lord Jesus that we find recorded for us by Luke. In Luke 11 (and in Matthew’s parallel account in Matt. 7:7-11, although in a different setting), Jesus taught His disciples something that was most essential to their well-being as His followers, and as Christians living in the world and facing the many uncertainties that confronted them. And I believe that by the time we have considered these things that Jesus proclaimed, we will find ourselves in a much better place—in a better frame of mind and heart—to face with great hope whatever lies ahead for us in the new year.
To get the whole scene before you, take some time to read and reflect upon Luke 11:1-13 (and compare it to the similar episode in Matthew 7:7-11). And as you read and mediate upon these blessed words, think especially about the wonderful implications of knowing that we have a “heavenly Father” who always delights in giving us “good gifts” when we pray!