Luke 11:1-4 :

It happened, that when he finished praying in a certain place, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John also taught his disciples.”

He said to them, “When you pray, say,

‘Our Father in heaven,
may your name be kept holy.
May your Kingdom come.
May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us day by day our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
Bring us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.’”

People who really pray appear to have an effect on those around them. You get a sense of that in this passage because the disciple asking the question had witnessed two different people who had enough of an effect on him that he asked Jesus this question. This causes me to realize that righteous men are known for praying and they can create a desire in others to do the same. That’s how we should be.

Notice that when Jesus prays He speaks to the Father. That is also the same way that the apostles prayed later. We are to pray to God the Father and I don’t believe that it is most appropriate to pray to Jesus. I don’t say this to stop people from praying to Jesus because I believe the Father understands, but the examples we see in the Bible tell us to pray to the Father.

The first thing that Jesus does is speak of the Holiness of God. It is easy while we are here on earth to forget that God is way above all of mankind. When we talk to God we are being given a privilege just because of how great He is. The next thing Jesus does is remember the “Kingdom Mission” and that is that God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Keeping God’s goals and purposes in mind is very important when we come to Him in prayer. It is easy for us to focus only on our own desires when what God expects is that we keep His agenda on our minds. I believe the goal that Jesus gave to the disciples here is different the immediate goal that God has for us today. God expects us to prepare people for heaven, but this exposes an important thing.

If God’s Kingdom hasn’t been set up on earth, then Jesus’ prayer has not yet been answered. I know that whatever Jesus prays will happen. This is evidence of the coming Kingdom of God on this earth.