11th December – Luke 11: “Lord, Teach Us to Pray – and Let Your Light Shine”
Hey friends, welcome to December 11th. We’re in Luke 11, and the whole chapter is built around one request that still echoes in every believer’s heart: “Lord, teach us to pray.”
Scene 1 – The Pattern and the Promise (vv. 1-13)
One day Jesus finishes praying, and a disciple blurts out, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.”
Jesus answers with the beautiful prayer we call the Lord’s Model Prayer (vv. 2-4).
Then He tells three quick stories that burn one truth into us:
• The friend at midnight who keeps knocking until he gets bread.
• The father who, if his son asks for bread, won’t give him a stone.
• And the punchline: “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” (v. 13).
Prayer isn’t about technique; it’s about persistence, confidence, and knowing we’re talking to a good, good Father.
Scene 2 – The Light and the Eye (vv. 33-36)
Right in the middle of all this teaching on prayer and the kingdom, Jesus says something about light:
“No man, when he hath lighted a candle, putteth it in a secret place, neither under a bushel, but on a candlestick, that they which come in may see the light… The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light” (vv. 33, 35).
Every year at the Feast of Tabernacles, Jerusalem blazed with light. Four gigantic golden menorahs, each 75 feet tall, stood in the Court of Women. Priests climbed ladders to fill the bowls with oil, and when they were lit, the Mishnah says there wasn’t a courtyard in Jerusalem that wasn’t illuminated. The whole city danced in the glow, remembering the pillar of fire that led Israel through the wilderness.
And it was right there, with those massive menorahs burning behind Him, that Jesus stood up and declared, “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12).
Tonight, two thousand years later, we light Christmas trees and candles and menorahs, and we still remember: the true Light has come. He is not one light among many, He is the Light. And when our eye is single, when we fix our gaze on Him alone, our whole body is flooded with light.
That’s why we sing, with the old John Newton:
How tedious and tasteless the hours
When Jesus no longer I see!
Sweet prospects, sweet birds, and sweet flowers
Have all lost their sweetness to me.
The midsummer sun shines but dim,
The fields strive in vain to look gay;
But when I am happy in Him,
December’s as pleasant as May.
His name yields the richest perfume,
And sweeter than music His voice;
His presence disperses my gloom,
And makes all within me rejoice…
Dear Lord, if indeed I am Thine,
If Thou art my sun and my song,
Say, why do I languish and pine,
And why are my winters so long?
O drive these dark clouds from my sky,
Thy soul-cheering presence restore;
Or take me to Thee up on high,
Where winter and clouds are no more.
Scene 3 – The Warning (vv. 37-54)
A Pharisee invites Jesus to dinner, then marvels that He didn’t wash in the ceremonial way. Jesus doesn’t hold back:
“Ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup… but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness” (v. 39).
He pronounces woes on them for tithing mint and rue while passing over justice and the love of God, for loving the best seats while being full of dead men’s bones, for building tombs for the prophets their fathers killed, and, worst of all, for taking away “the key of knowledge” (v. 52).
They had the Scriptures but did not enter in, and tried to lock the door so no one could enter the kingdom.
Friends, the same danger faces us this Christmas. We can have trees blazing with light, houses full of candles, and still have hearts full of darkness if we refuse to open the door to the true Light.
So here’s the heartbeat of Luke 11:
Keep asking, seeking, knocking, because your Father loves to give the Holy Spirit to those who ask.
Keep your eye single; fix it on Jesus, the Light of the world.
And never, ever, let religion take away the key of knowledge. The door is wide open. His name is Jesus.
Lord, teach us to pray.
Lord, let Your light shine in us.
Lord, drive these dark clouds from our sky.
See you tomorrow for Luke 12. Grace and peace, and may every light you see this Christmas point you to the One who said, “I am the Light of the world.” 🙏✨
