Luke 11:1–13: Prayer That Changes Us

August 14, 2026

The Ten Signposts of the Bible
CAMDE—400—CALY
Creation. Abraham. Moses. David. Elijah. 400. Christ. Apostles. Letters. Yet-to-Come.

Here are the truths we know: God is all-knowing, and God is sovereign. He already knows exactly what we need before we need it. So why should we pray? Why ask God for things he already knows we will ask for, if his sovereign will is always fulfilled no matter what? 

To better understand prayer, let’s look at what today’s passage teaches us. In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem to complete his work on the cross, and along the way he has much to teach his disciples. After Jesus finished praying, one of the disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples” (Luke 11:1).

We know from John 1:29–41 that some of Jesus’ disciples had first followed John the Baptist. Yet there must have been something different when Jesus prayed. This was the Son speaking to the Father. The disciples longed for that same depth of intimacy with God, and they also recognized the connection between Jesus' prayer life and his awesome power. 

Interestingly, Jesus did not tell the disciples to immerse themselves in the psalms, the prayer book of the Old Testament. They had learned the psalms since childhood, so he gave them a fresh way to approach God, commonly called the Lord’s Prayer. 

Father, hallowed be your name.
When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, the first request was that God’s name be “hallowed.” God’s name, which represents his Person, should be treated as holy. R. C. Sproul wrote, “It is impious, irreverent and blasphemous to play loosely with the name of God. And yet the world does it daily.”^[1] But believers are not of the world. When we honor God’s name, we honor his Person.

Your kingdom come. 
God reigns in heaven. So our prayer here is that God’s reign would be acknowledged and embraced on earth as it is in heaven. As believers, we are tasting the kingdom now. One day we will experience it fully in heaven. So this statement is that we would desire more of God and his work in our lives now. 

Give us each day our daily bread…
This is a prayer for daily dependence. We acknowledge that everything we need comes from the Father, and each day we ask him to provide what we need for that day. 

…and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. 
When we sin, and we do, God forgives us immediately (1 John 1:9). He does not hold our disobedience against us. In the same way, when someone sins against us and asks for forgiveness, we should not withhold it. 

And lead us not into temptation. 
God does not tempt us (James 1:13-14). But Satan does, and he will. We should ask God to keep us from Satan's deception and evil intentions. 

Here is another key aspect of knowing the Lord’s Prayer. R. C. Sproul reminds us that this is not a prayer meant simply to be memorized and repeated mindlessly.^[2] It is meant to be analyzed. This prayer is a model that guides us in our own personal prayer time. Some churches follow a weekly pattern or structure (liturgy) of worship. While this was designed to be theological and meaningful, we all know that saying the same things over and over can lead to words being spoken without engaging the mind or heart.  

Jesus follows the Lord’s Prayer with two important principles on prayer. First, he teaches persistence through a story about a man who keeps knocking on his neighbor’s door (Luke 11:5–8). As believers, we should not give up on praying. We should always be thoughtful and intentional, as though we mean it. Second, we should expect good things from our Father. When children ask for something to eat, only a diabolical parent would give them a snake instead of a fish or a scorpion instead of an egg. Jesus said, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13). 

Again, Jesus emphasizes persistence in prayer: “And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened” (Luke 10:9–10). 

Let’s return to our first question: Why pray? We pray because prayer changes us. 

Prayer does not come naturally. No one is born a good pray-er. Yet through Jesus, the believer has been restored to fellowship with God. We don’t pray to get our own way; we pray to learn God’s way, which is what we truly desire first and foremost. We pray to grow in intimacy with him.

Prayer is simply talking to our heavenly Father, and consider this: when we talk to God, we are speaking to the eternal, sovereign Creator of Genesis 1:1! Experiencing such intimacy leads to a greater desire for even more intimacy with God, because we can never fully know him on this side of heaven. 

That’s why growing believers will never say that they are one hundred percent satisfied with their prayer life. That’s why the disciples said, “Lord, teach us to pray.” When we experience a small spark of that intimacy, there is always a yearning for more. 

Read and reflect on Luke 11:1–13: When you pray, are you primarily seeking God's will and greater intimacy with him, or are you mainly asking him to meet your immediate needs?

Talking to God: Ask God to teach you to pray. 

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