Luke 11:1 I. Our Lord seems to have undertaken no great work without earnest prayer for God's guidance. If we undertook everything in this spirit we should have more success, and more happiness in our success than we have. And it was not merely when He had some special boon to ask that our Saviour... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 11:2 The Address of the Lord's Prayer. I. This name by which we are commanded to call upon God is one of the most remarkable things in the whole prayer. There are the seeds of it, indeed, in the Old Testament, just as there are seeds of the other truths of the Gospel. Yet, even in those passa... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 11:3 I. Dependence and not independence is the true condition of man; dependence upon God for all things things bodily, things spiritual. Men are not very ready in general to allow this, at least are not ready to recognise it in the only way which is of any value; that is, in their practice, in... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 11:4 I. The mischief of sin is its universality; it is everywhere, different parts of the world have different products, and men have different characters in different quarters of the world, and different manners and customs, and different colours, but in this one thing they all agree, that si... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 11:6 The Friend at Midnight. I. The success of prayer is conditioned by the character of the suppliant. Not every kind of asking is acceptable prayer. That which men desire simply for the gratification of malice, or the pampering of appetite, or the satisfying of ambition, or the aggrandising... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 11:12 Short devotions a hindrance to prayer. I. Our Lord's nights of prayer were not simple exercises of His exceeding spiritual strength; they were also the earnest cleaving of man to God. And if the infirmities of a sinless being drew him so mightily to God, how much more ought the sin that... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 11:13 I. Whilst prayer is described in the Bible as a positive duty, man's inability to pray acceptably of himself is stated in the strongest and most unequivocal terms. But if such be the nature of prayer he alone who has the Spirit can really pray. It would seem to follow that the gift of the... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 11:14 I. "Jesus was casting out a devil, and it was dumb." What is the message to us? Look at the Greek word here translated "dumb." That Greek word means, in its first use, blunt, obtuse; and so a blunted or lamed man in tongue. Mark here, then, the first lesson enshrined in this little word.... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 11:23 _(with Luke 9:49)_ The Antagonism of Indifference. I. When we place these two sayings side by side, it seems clear enough from the very fact of its solemn utterance as a maxim universal to all, and even from the critical circumstances which called it forth, that the first of my texts is... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 11:35 I. Through the avenues of conscience, which is to the soul what the eye is to the body, communications from God are always pouring in. In nature, in providence, but still more by His Word, and by His own inward grace, He acts upon the man. The understanding is formed, the reason is direct... [ Continue Reading ]