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Luke 11:1-4

Yoyo Prayer

If I was a yoyo then I would pray most often and most fervently on the way down and hardly at all on the way up. Prayer is most fervent when I’m in the most need. The larger the crises the more intense and frequent is my praying. However when life seems to be working out then I pray less frequently and less intently.

Christ came to break my yoyo cycle of prayer. He does this by first helping me understand that the yoyo prayer is really centred and focused on me. God is the person I expect to save me from trouble, pain and suffering. So when I’m not suffering I don’t need God so I don’t pray.

Christ also helped me understand that my yoyo prayer cycle works independently of him. God works for me, to give me what I want. There is no partnership in yoyo praying. I talk to God but not with him. Christ wants me to enter into a loving relationship which is based on love not benefits. He wants me to live my life subject to God so that everything I am and do is done in partnership and in harmony with God.

Christ helped me understand that my yoyo prayer cycle relies more on my ability than on God’s ability to provide. When I’m going down and I feel I can’t cope I turn to God for help, for his provision. But normally I’m happy thinking I can do it on my own. Christ has helped me recognise that my sense of self sufficiency is in fact an illusion. I cannot exist without God.

Christ isn’t changing my prayer life. He is changing me and my relationship with God so that I’m learning to love God more deeply which has changed they way I pray.  the Rev

Luke 11:1-4 Pray

Exercises

• Discuss some of the clues used to deduce some of the practicalities of Christ’s prayer habits in v1. Share in what way you pray, include preferred place, time and style.

• What is the emphasis found in Christ’s prayer in v2? Discuss why this is both counter-intuitive but also helpful to you.

• Explore what you think Jesus means by daily bread v3-4. Discuss the connection between seeking forgiveness and forgiving others. Share in what way you would like support to escape a temptation in your life.