Thursday

Related Verses
Matt. 6:13
13 And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

Luke 11:1,5-8,9-10
1 And while He was in a certain place praying, when He ceased, a certain one of His disciples said to Him, Lord, teach us to pray, even as John also taught his disciples.
5 And He said to them, Who among you will have a friend and will go to him at midnight and say to him, Friend, lend me three loaves,
6 Since a friend of mine has come to me from a journey and I have nothing to set before him;
7 And that one, from inside, will answer and say, Do not trouble me; the door is already shut and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise up and give you anything?
8 I say to you, Even though he will not rise up and give him anything because he is his friend, surely because of his shameless persistence he will rise and give him what he needs.
9 And I say to you, Ask and it shall be given to you; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened to you.
10 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it shall be opened.

Psa. 5:3
3 O Jehovah, in the morning You will hear my voice; In the morning I will set forth my words in order to You, And I will watch.

Isa. 50:4
4 The Lord Jehovah has given me The tongue of the instructed, That I should know how to sustain the weary with a word. He awakens me morning by morning; He awakens my ear To hear as an instructed one.

Related Reading
The prayer to the Father concludes…[with] the realization and praise of God’s kingdom, power, and glory [Matt. 6:13]. This also refers to the Triune God. The kingdom is of the Son, which is the realm in which God exercises His power. The power is of the Spirit, which carries out God’s intention so that the Father can express His glory. This indicates that the prayer that the Lord taught us to pray begins with the Triune God, in the sequence of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, and ends also with the Triune God, but in the sequence of the Son, the Spirit, and the Father. Thus, the prayer taught by the Lord in His supreme teaching begins with God the Father and ends also with God the Father. God the Father is both the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega. 

Such a crucial prayer surely increases our seeking of the kingdom of the heavens as the Father’s heart’s desire and affords us our need of the divine supply of grace to fulfill all the supreme and strict requirements of the kingdom of the heavens for the Father’s good pleasure. On the one hand, we are seeking for something according to the Father’s heart’s desire. On the other hand, we have the supply to fulfill something for the Father’s good pleasure. (CWWL, 1994–1997, vol. 3, “The God-man Living,” pp. 539-540) 

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In Luke 11:1-13 we have the Man-Savior’s teaching concerning prayer. If we read this section carefully again and again, we will see that prayer means that we pray ourselves into God…Luke 11:1 says, “While He was in a certain place praying, when He ceased, a certain one of His disciples said to Him, Lord, teach us to pray…” We do not know what the Lord was praying for. When the disciples saw Him praying, they wanted Him to teach them to pray. Then the Lord went on to say, “When you pray, say, Father, Your name be sanctified; Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us into temptation” (vv. 2-4)…If we would pray this way again and again, the result will be that we will pray ourselves into God. In other words, the issue of this prayer is that we find ourselves in God. 

If we pray according to the Lord’s teaching in these verses, we will be persons in God. I encourage you to pray, “Father, Your name be sanctified; Your kingdom come.” If you pray this a number of times, you will find that you are in God…From experience I can testify that to pray according to the Lord’s instruction is to pray ourselves into God. 

Once we have prayed ourselves into God,…we will simply receive Him with His riches into us. As fallen human beings, we were altogether outside of God and had nothing to do with His riches. Hence, we could not enjoy the riches of God. We need to pray ourselves into God and then, as those in Him, receive Him and His riches. 

Often in our experience we are not in God. We do not stay in God; we do not remain in Him. For example, before going to bed, a brother loses his temper with his wife. When he rises up the next morning, he rises up outside of God. What should he do? He should pray himself into God. 

Often we are distracted from God,…[even] simply by an advertisement in the newspaper. Because we are easily distracted from God, we should spend time every morning with Him, praying ourselves into Him…The prayer, “Father, forgive me as I forgive others,” is inclusive. The more you pray like this, the more you will realize that you pray yourself into God. Then in God you will receive the life supply. (Life-study of Luke, pp. 222-223) 

Further Reading: Life-study of Luke, msg. 27