In the beginning of Luke 11, we find Jesus teaching His disciples how they ought to pray. For new Christians and young children, Luke 11:2-4 have become a starting point for learning to communicate with God. But in the True Jesus Church, a newly baptized Christian is taught the need to pray for the Holy Spirit. Does the Lord’s Prayer come anywhere near teaching us to seek for the Holy Spirit?
There is a line in the Lord’s Prayer that says, "Give us day by day our daily bread." Most of us would understand this phrase as asking the Lord to provide us with daily sustenance in the form of food and basic necessities. We have not erred if we have adopted this meaning. Reading deeper into Jesus’ words, however, we will understand that He is teaching us the need to pray for something spiritual, something that we require above our physical needs. John 6:49-50 says, "Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die." Hence, Jesus teaches the need to seek for the everlasting bread instead of the bread that perishes. Seek for the spiritual first.
So in Luke 11:1-13, Jesus starts from the basics—teaching us to pray for the glory of God, our needs and our morality as man. We have now come to understand that the bread He desires us to seek is the spiritual bread, since the physical kind will perish. We should seek the spiritual over the physical. Jesus goes one step further to teach us to apply this to our real spiritual need. From verse 5 onwards, He describes how persistence will bring us an answer and how a father’s love will not bring him to give something contrary to his son’s request. These sayings end with the final most important teaching: ask for the Holy Spirit, for in His great love, He will grant your request (Lk 11:13). This is what our real spiritual need is, the Holy Spirit.
With this understanding, let us henceforth seek out the "bread" that does not perish. If we have yet to receive the Holy Spirit, let us earnestly ask for Him. If we have received the Holy Spirit, let us ask that the Lord continually fill us.
All glory be to God.
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