«　WEEK 6　DAY 1　»

　　Luke 11:1-4 …While He was in a certain place praying, when He ceased, a certain one of His disciples said to Him, Lord, teach us to pray….And He said to them, When you pray, say, Father, Your name be sanctified; Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us into temptation.

　　In Luke 11:1-13 we have the Man-Savior's teaching on prayer. If we read this section carefully again and again, we shall see that prayer means that we pray ourselves into God. When some hear this, they may say, “…How can you say that to pray is to pray ourselves into God?” Apparently, this matter is not found in 11:1-13. Actually, in these verses we see that to pray is to pray ourselves into God.

　　We do not know what the Lord was praying for. When the disciples saw Him praying, they wanted Him to teach them to pray. Then the Lord went on to say, “When you pray, say, Father, Your name be sanctified; Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us into temptation” (vv. 2-4). I have spent much time considering this brief word. My conclusion is that if we would pray this way again and again, the result will be that we shall pray ourselves into God. In other words, the issue of this prayer is that we find ourselves in God. (Life-study of Luke, p. 230)

　　[If you pray], “Father, Your name be sanctified; Your kingdom come,”… a number of times, you will find that you are in God. This is both my understanding and my experience.

　　Once we have prayed ourselves into God, what shall we do now that we are in God? We shall simply receive Him with His riches into us.

　　Suppose [a] brother prays something like this: “Father, You are just and fair. You know that my wife is wrong. I ask You to vindicate me.” The more the brother prays like this, the farther he will be away from God in his experience. He needs to pray, “O Father, sanctify Your name. Your kingdom come. Father, give me bread for this day, and forgive me even as I forgive my wife. Father, do not bring me into that trial again.” The more the brother prays like this, the more he will find himself in God. This illustrates the point that to pray is to pray ourselves into God.

　　Because we are easily distracted from God, we should spend time every morning with Him, praying ourselves into Him. There is no need to pray in detail concerning our shortcomings…. The prayer, “Father, forgive me as I forgive others,” is inclusive. The more you pray like this, the more you will realize that you pray yourself into God. Then in God you will receive the life supply.

　　The governing principle of our prayer should be that prayer always brings us into God. Do not pray if your prayer does not bring you into God. This does not mean that you should not ask the Lord to heal you if you are sick…. If your way of praying distracts you from the Lord and does not bring you into Him, you should change your way of praying. Seek to pray in such a way that you are brought into God. The prayer that brings us into God is the right kind of prayer. We know from our experience with the Lord that often we have prayed properly and have prayed ourselves into God. As we remain in Him, we receive His riches, the riches that are embodied in His Spirit. When we receive the Holy Spirit as our life supply signified by the loaves, the fish, and the egg, we can feed ourselves, and we can also feed all those under our care [Luke 11:5-13].

　　The totality of these riches—the riches of the earth, the water, and the air—is the Holy Spirit. This means that the Holy Spirit is the life supply. When we pray ourselves into God, we should remain in God to receive the Holy Spirit as our life supply. (Life-study of Luke, pp. 230-231, 234, 233-234)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Luke, msg. 27