Talk to God Before you Talk to Others About God: RRE 3
Religion Ruins Everything Daily 3 9.13.16If you want to learn to talk to others, you have to learn how to talk to God first. The disciples saw Jesus withdraw and spend entire nights praying by Himself. Sometimes He would be in a garden or on a mountainside. Sometimes He would pray all day on the side of a hill or in the city. When His disciples asked Jesus how to pray, He didn’t tell them to be sincere and wing it, but He gave them 12 verses of instruction. You can really learn something about prayer, you can grow in it, and you can practice it.
[1] Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” [2] And he said to them, “When you pray, say: “Father, hallowed be your name.Your kingdom come.[3] Give us each day our daily bread,[4] and forgive us our sins,for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.And lead us not into temptation.”
[5] And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, [6] for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; [7] and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything’? [8] I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs. [9] 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. [10] For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. [11] What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; [12] or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? [13] 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 11:1–13