Jesus spent a lot of time alone in prayer. This impressed the disciples, so they asked Him to teach them how to pray. Jesus responded by teaching them the Model Prayer, often referred to as the Lord’s Prayer (Luke 11:1-13). A longer version of this prayer appears in His Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6:9-13).      The Model Prayer teaches us to call on God as a loving Father; to ask for His provision for our daily needs; to seek His forgiveness for our sins; to ask for help extending forgiveness to others; and to ask for strength to resist the temptations of Satan.

Jesus went on to teach us to be persistent in our prayers by asking, seeking, and knocking to determine His purpose for our lives. Prayers offered in this spirit will be honoered and answered by the Lord.

One of Jesus’ parables emphasized the importance of persistent prayer. He told about a poor widow who kept coming to a judge to persuade him to hear her case. Finally, the judge to persuade him to hear her case. Finally, the judge rendered a favorable judgment in her behalf-not because he was just and fair but because she wore him down with her persistent pleading. The parable shows that our heavenly Father will answer our prayers if we place them before Him with persistence, expectancy, faith, and trust (Luke 18:1-8).