Daily Bible Reading 1st September 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.”
It costs, we said in yesterday's Note, to maintain a close fellowship with Christ; and often, human nature, even redeemed human nature, being what it is, there are battles to be fought to maintain the lines of communication between us and God, to bring ourselves to, and keep ourselves in, a true relation of oneness with Him, aligned with His will and with His redemptive purpose in the world. Satan knows how deadly this position is, for him, and so he seeks to mar and harm the relationship, and often it is a question of battling against the snares he puts in our way, or stirs up within us, and it may mean dying a thousand deaths in the process.
Overcoming the moral and spiritual hindrances in order to maintain the relationship, and so be enabled to pray in His Name, in line with His purposes, bringing oneself into the true attitude of submission to the divine word and will, into our rightful place before God - this is what is exemplified and set forth in the Lord's Prayer. The prayer has two sections, one dealing with the Godward attitudes, the other with the manward - first of all the purposes of God for the world, then human and temporal needs. One thinks of Jesus' words in the Sermon on the Mount, 'Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you' - this is undoubtedly the pattern in the Lord's Prayer.