THE MAIN IDEA
The disciple of Christ prays, because the kingdom of Christ has come.

DISCIPLES OF JESUS PRAY WITH FAITH
Jesus gives us a pattern for how His disciples ought to pray. And so we ought to pray that pattern with faith, because in faith, we accept that Jesus knows what is best for us. The values and ways of the world are not in our best interest. This prayer shifts our values to have total dependence upon God through faith. Addressing God as “Father” means that we can have the same assurance that Jesus has of our heavenly Father’s loving care for His children. “Hallowed be Your name” and “Your kingdom come” acknowledge that the kingdom of Christ is here, and so they are asking for Jesus to reign in this world and in our lives. But those requests are also asking Jesus to come back and fix this broken world. “Give us each day our daily bread” is asking the Father to provide for our basic physical and material needs. We also pray for forgiveness, even if we are already saved, because we continue to sin. Jesus went to the cross for the forgiveness of all of our sins, but receiving that forgiveness comes with the condition of forgiving others. And finally, the Jesus’s pattern of prayer asks God to give us the strength to not give in to the temptations around us. Whatever temptations we face, we should keep praying, and God will give us victory over those temptations.

DISCIPLES OF JESUS PRAY WITH AUDACITY
The point of the parable of bothersome friend is not that we should keep bothering God until He gives us what we want. It is that we should pray with shameless audacity (verse 8), that is, bold persistence. And the promise is that God will always answer. Luke is using food, a basic necessity of life, as the object of prayer. But this promise extends to all of the needs we may face in our lives too. God always answers our prayers in one of three ways: yes, no, or not yet. So then why does God sometimes not grant our requests? Part of the answer is that God won’t grant selfish prayers (James 4:3). But even though Jesus lived a sinless life, He did not have all of His prayers granted, either. So He prayed “yet not my will, but Yours be done” (Luke 22:42). Our faith must not be based on whether our prayers get answered or not. If that were the case, no one would have faith. Our faith is in God, and our faith tells us that God understands our struggle and knows our pain, but also that God knows what is best. Nevertheless, when Jesus returns, all of my prayers that are in line with God’s goodness will be answered. But when the Father does grant my prayer requests, I will rejoice and tell everyone, God has done it.

DISCIPLES OF JESUS PRAY WITH CONFIDENCE
When we pray with faith, and when we pray with audacity, we can pray with confidence, because God is good all the time. In fact, God alone is good. Humans, on the other hand, are evil (verse 13; Psalm 14:2-3; Psalm 53:2-3; Ecclesiastes 7:20; Romans 3:10-12, 23). And what evil people like us need more than anything else, more than even food and water, is the Holy Spirit. Except for the Holy Spirit in us, we would not be saved (Ephesians 1:13-14). And without being filled with the Holy Spirit, our Father God will not even hear our prayers (Romans 8:15). But with the Holy Spirit, we have everything in this world that we need. Everything. If the Holy Spirit is already active in me through faith, will my praying for the Spirit nullify the Spirit in me? Never. God is always good. And so let us always pray with faith, pray with audacity, and pray with confidence.

DISCUSSION QUESTION
What do you feel that you need to help you level up your prayer life?