He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” He said to them, “When you pray, say:

Father, hallowed be your name.
    

Your kingdom come.
    

Give us each day our daily bread.

     And forgive us our sins,
        

for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.
    

And do not bring us to the time of trial.”

And he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.’ And he answers from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.

“So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

- Luke 11:1-13

We will never fully comprehend the depths of God’s living word. As we study and admire and enjoy the essence of the outer layer of an onion, we realize that another layer lies beneath the first waiting to reveal new insights, a variation of pearly luminescence, a fresh new scent and new features to grasp. Beneath it lays another layer and another and another. As we continue peeling deeper the depths continue to expand. On different days in different seasons with different eyes, God’s holy word continues to reveal.

Is it bad to compare God’s holy word to an onion? Perhaps a mine or well that will never empty or a spouse whose nuances and depths we will never fully know or some different analogy would be better suited for a divine topic such as this. As we continue to pursue, He continues to reveal.

Jesus’s teaching in the passage above is example of this. I have long seen the first portion as a prayer template, the second as a lesson about persistence and the third as a directive to ask, seek and knock. And they are, but I recently saw a different layer to the teaching. Today, let’s focus on the connection between relationship and prayer.

Jesus weaves the theme of relationship through His teaching about prayer, suggesting that prayer begins with relationship, or at least a desire to engage in relationship. As we consider approaching God in prayer, we must consider whom we are approaching and our connection, our link, our standing with Him because we approach strangers one way and our closest friends another. So we begin by considering, consciously or not, who are we to Him and who is He to us? And that initial analysis determines our approach, our words and possibly our expectations and the character of the entire encounter.

He begins by instructing us to address God as “Father.” Pause and think about that for a moment. God has incomprehensible power and authority and love and knowledge. We cannot even begin to imagine His awesomeness with our limited earthly human minds. He created everything in the universe out of nothing by speaking. He is the author of life, breathing life into each of us. He is unbound by space and time. He is truly God Almighty and we will never even begin to comprehend the qualities attempted to be conveyed by the words; yet, Jesus instructs us to address God as “Father.”

How awesome is that? While the amazing privilege is awesome beyond words, it is also connected to daunting responsibility. Referring to God as “Father” implies that we are His children and have relationship with Him.

Before we have time to begin processing and mining the depths of that thought, Jesus changes direction and moves on. Imagine it is late at night and you need help. Who will you wake up for help? If you are stranded in the middle of nowhere with no cellphone signal, you might knock on a stranger’s door for help, praying all the while that Kathy Bates’ character in Misery does not live there. In certain dire situations we might bother a stranger late at night, but what if the need is not that sort of emergency and you have options about who to seek help from? Who will you bother late at night? Will you bother your neighbor who you wave to but don’t really know? Or will you call your closest friend, the person you know will be there for you, the person you know will still be your friend even after you wake them up late at night and ask them for help. As we consider prayer, Jesus teaches us to consider God as a close friend who we have the sort of relationship with allowing us to feel comfortable bothering Him late at night.

Jesus then instructs us to ask, seek and knock. Asking involves verbal communication, seeking involves the desire to find, and knocking involves physical action in pursuit of connection. He concludes by returning to the image of a parent-child relationship, focusing on a parent’s desire to give good gifts to his or her children. If even we lowly, earthly, evil humans give good gifts to our children, “how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” God the Father, our heavenly Father, your heavenly Father, desires to give you the best of all gifts.

Prayer presumes relationship or at least the desire to engage in relationship. As you prepare to approach God in prayer, begin by considering your relationship with Him and as you pray do so with a heart continuously asking, seeking and knocking. May you receive God as your loving heavenly Father who desires relationship with you, may you engage in the sort of relationship with Him allowing you to feel comfortable waking Him up late at night for help, may you receive the fullness of the gifts He desires to give.