Luke 11:2-4 – “So Jesus taught them this prayer: “Our heavenly Father, may the glory of your name be the center on which our life turns.  May your Holy Spirit come upon us and cleanse us.  Manifest your kingdom on earth. 3 And give us our needed bread for the coming day.  4 Forgive our sins as we ourselves release forgiveness to those who have wronged us.  And rescue us every time we face tribulations.” 

Today is unfolding as a day to be unfolded.   It seems each step has distractions and detours to navigate.  It is not bad, but each step requires a pause to ask, “What now, Lord?”   My daily routine is being pushed to the side.   It will be an exciting day, and God’s purposes will be attained.

As I began reading, praying, and pondering the Word, Jesus’s model prayer in Luke 11 captured my thoughts.   No matter how many times I read it, something fresh is discovered.

He began by directing the focus on the Father.  The phrasing in the Passion Translation spoke powerfully to my heart. “…May the Glory of Your Name be the center upon which our life turns.”    Think about that. The starting place of every day is God, and He is to be the source from which we live.    He is to be the center of every word, action and thought. That opens the door to everything!

He then asked for the ministry of the Holy Spirit to come, convict, convince, and convert us.   He desired that we be bathed in God’s mercy and grace and thoroughly purged of our sins.   God is central, and out of that recognition, we receive cleansing.

Those two factors open the door to revelation and enable us to experience the Kingdom.  The kingdom flows out of the manifested Jesus, and we enter that in a state of total surrender and spiritual regeneration.   Then, with God and the spiritual elevated to the pinnacle of our lives, we turn to our daily needs—bread for food, naturally and spiritually.

With God Supreme, our hearts are purified, and a consciousness of God’s manifestation (kingdom), our daily needs are supplied, and we do more introspection that exposes our hearts.   In the light of our own forgiveness from God, we forgive others.

In that heightened state of consciousness of God, totally surrendered to Him, saturated with the Spirit, and Spirit-led, we elevate our confidence in God. “Rescue us every time we face tribulations.”

The illustration that Jesus gave as an addendum is powerful. Persistence is the key!   We get right in our hearts, which translates to being right in our lives.   We often pray the model prayer without expectation.    We ask, and it doesn’t happen, and we quickly conclude it must not be God’s will.   NO!   Persist. “Be not weary in well doing, for in due season we reap IF we don’t quit!”

Pursue God above everything and then refuse to stop pursuing the promises!  There is power, promise, and provision in PERSISTENCE! 
No matter what, PERSIST!

In your questions of “What Next or What Now?” rest in His goodness and keep looking up, for our redemption is drawing very near!