Scripture Reading: Luke 11:1-13
Our passage opens with an illustration of unconscious influence. The disciples saw their Master praying apart from them and yet within their sight, and were so impressed by something in His manner, perhaps His earnestness and fervor, that they wished to learn how to pray as He did. We never can know what the silent influence of our acts may be upon those who see us. One gentle person in a home unconsciously impresses and influences the whole household. One quiet, restful person makes others calmer and more quiet. One faithful, consistent life in a workshop, an office, or a school is a perpetual gospel, touching all the other lives. By simply being good we may start in many others desires to be good also. A young man, lodging once with a stranger at a country inn, where the two were put to sleep in the same room, by kneeling at his beside before retiring, touched the other’s heart and became the means of his salvation and consecration to useful life and service. We never know how far the influence of our example may reach.
We all need to make the same request the disciples made, “Lord, teach us to pray.” We do not know how to pray, and there is no one who can teach us so well as Jesus can. We will find many words of Christ on the subject of prayer, all of which it will be profitable for us to study. We do not know what things we are to ask for. We are shortsighted and are apt to plead for comfort and help in the present moment, not thinking of the years before us. We all need to pray and need to be taught how to pray. The passage we are now studying is our Lord’s answer to the request of His disciples to be taught how to pray.
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