Daily Bible Reading 29th August 2026 // Luke 11:1-4
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.”
We come in this chapter to our Lord's teaching on prayer, and particularly, in the first instance, to what is known as the Lord's Prayer. This is perhaps the most familiar part of the New Testament, and it suffers, like most other familiar passages, the fate of being taken too much for granted. It is only when we examine what is being said that we see the immense implications of Jesus' words.
By way of introduction, it will be useful to remember that for some time now, Luke's theme has been that of discipleship. We are therefore to understand prayer here as an expression of discipleship. This, in itself, necessarily qualifies our understanding of the prayer, as being a pattern, not for men in general, but for those who are committed to discipleship. For example, the first words, 'Our Father' presuppose a certain relationship to God - not, indeed, a relationship which is natural to man, in the sense that God is Father of all, for He is not, except in the general respect of His being Creator of all men, but rather a relationship into which we enter through repentance and faith. All Christ's teaching presupposes having come to terms with the gospel and its challenge, and therefore, being able to say, 'Our Father' means to have come into a right relationship with God. Prayer based on a relationship to God - this is a centrally important principle in all this study, as we shall presently see in the Notes that follow.