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This week, we’re in Practice #3: Grow in Prayer. Today, let’s spend ten minutes in the Lord’s prayer in Luke 11:1-4 from the New English Translation:

11:1 Now Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he stopped, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” 2 So he said to them, “When you pray, say: ‘Father, may your name be honored; may your kingdom come. 3 Give us each day our daily bread, 4 and forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And do not lead us into temptation.’”

Sunday’s sermon reminded us of the things we can absolutely expect from God if and when we pray the Lord’s Prayer. Let’s focus on the final two:

7. I can expect...to become a grace-giver.

One of our goals at DBC is to become a community marked by grace, committed to leaving the confines of comfort to love a world that’s grown skeptical of religion but still longs for the grace of Jesus Christ. The only way this goal becomes reality is if each of us daily soaks in the grace we have received and are receiving from God through His Son and His Spirit. Simply put, we can only give what we have first received.

Spend a few minutes in evaluation and confession. When people encounter you, do they experience grace? Are you eager to show mercy, kindness, grace, and forgiveness? Or are judgment and self-seeking more typically your response? Ask God to make you more like Jesus in the way He willingly and freely extends grace.

8. I can expect...to be better prepared for temptation.

In our humanness, sin will continue to look enticing. God makes provision for this by placing His Spirit in us to help us choose holiness. Jesus tells his followers that they can daily ask God to protect them from the temptation of the world and the evil one. Let’s read from Romans 6:12-15 (NET):

12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires, 13 and do not present your members to sin as instruments to be used for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead and your members to God as instruments to be used for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no mastery over you, because you are not under law but under grace.

Spend some time repeating these verses to yourself. Thank God for the gift of life. Ask Him to make you an instrument of righteousness. Claim victory by reminding yourself that sin is no longer a master to be blindly followed. Rather, rejoice that you are “alive from the dead”!

Now, let’s pray the Lord’s prayer one more time with FAITH and EXPECTANCY:

11:1 Now Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he stopped, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” 2 So he said to them, “When you pray, say: ‘Father, may your name be honored; may your kingdom come. 3 Give us each day our daily bread, 4 and forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And do not lead us into temptation.’”

Amen.