Today we get to talk about prayer. Jesus was frequently in prayer. His disciples noticed and asked Jesus to teach them to pray. So Jesus gave them a model prayer. He said when you pray say this, and then He gave them what we know today as the Lord’s Prayer.
Jesus provided them with “what to pray”. Then he told them a couple of parables that at first glance seemed out of place. He tells of a visitor who arrived unannounced at midnight. The problem was that he had no bread to offer his unexpected guest. So he goes to his neighbor and pounds on his door to borrow several loaves of bread.
The neighbor is reluctant to get out of bed at such a late hour, but because of the persistence of his neighbor, he finally got up and provided the bread. Are we to assume God is the reluctant neighbor? No! The parable is encouraging us to be persistent in our prayer. The Lord’s Prayer tells us what to pray for, the parables tell us how to pray!
