Message #13 (of 20) from the PrayerPower radio series
"Jesus' Teaching on Prayer"

by Kaye Johns

Asking for our needs to be met does more than sustain our physical lives and well-being. In the simple act of asking and receiving, our faith is built. When Jesus taught His disciples to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread" [Matthew 6:11], He understood that.

The model prayer of Matthew 6 represents the foundation of a person’s prayer life, the beginning steps of prayer we must all master. As we come to God our Father asking and receiving, our faith is built for the deeper levels of prayer which Jesus taught much later in His ministry to more mature disciples.

But here at the beginning of His ministry, Jesus was teaching the basic foundation any of us needs for an effective prayer life. From the beginning He wanted us to know we have a loving Father to Whom we can come for what we need. God is not reluctant to give us our daily bread, He simply wants us to learn by asking.

These simple principles prepare us for Jesus’s later teaching on prayer. Those who are new and inexperienced in their prayer lives and personal relationship with the Lord are not ready to pray with persistence and boldness. They are just learning what it is to abide in Him and to allow Him to abide in them.

Until we master the basics, we can’t effectively move on in prayer.

Pray with me now --Father, may our faith be built through asking and receiving, for You have so much to give. In Jesus’ name, amen.

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