I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Luke 10-11.

    I wanted to write about Jesus sending out the 72 disciples and some of the other things in this passage which immediately followed that, but I could not form my thoughts into a coherent whole until I came to Jesus’ explanation of who our neighbor is in the story of the Good Samaritan. Most of the time when the story is talked about, it takes the story and explains that we should look at ourselves as the Jewish traveler and consider the despised Samaritan as our neighbor. That’s not wrong, but it is not the point Jesus made. Yes, we should recognize that those we have been taught to despise may be more likely to aid us when we are in trouble than those we have been taught to admire. However, when we look at this in context we see that was not Jesus’ point. Rather, Jesus was pointing out that we should love those who despise us. We should seek to place ourselves in the position of the Samaritan and give aid to those whom we expect to despise us.

    Shortly after that, one of the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray. A request which each and every one of us needs to make at some point. I know that I struggle with praying. Luke records the instructions which Jesus gave His disciples. These instructions came in three parts. First, He gave them (and us) a model prayer. That model has four elements

• Praise God and recognize His Lordship over us
• Ask God to provide for our needs.

In particular, our needs for today (and perhaps tomorrow, depending on how one translates the Greek). The key being providing what we need now, not into the future.

• Ask God for forgiveness while acknowledging our obligation to forgive

This involves both admitting that we have sinned and requesting God’s help in forgiving those who have wronged us.

• Finally, we ask God to give us the will to resist the temptations which we face.

Here we acknowledge that we will experience temptation and that only with God’s help will we be able to not give in to that temptation.

Next, Jesus teaches them to be persistent. He does not mean the persistence of the child who wants a cookie and asks repeatedly, “Can I have a cookie?” Rather means the persistence of the child who wants a cookie who asks, “What can I do to get a cookie?” (That’s not quite right either, but the point is that we need to listen to God’s responses to our prayers while continuing to ask for what we want). The final piece of what Jesus teaches us about prayer is that God loves us. If we ask for things that are good for us, He will give them to us. But, instead of giving us what we ask for, He may give us something better. And, if what we ask for will not be good for us or will be bad for us, He will not give it to us. Sometimes the reason we do not get the things we ask for is because they would do us harm.