1) How much do you pray? How persistent are you in bringing requests to God? What do you learn about God from 11:5-13?
2) What does it mean to be a hypocrite? In what areas of your faith could you slip into hypocrisy?
3) Do you struggle with being greedy? What are some things that draw you towards greed? Instead of being greedy, how can you be rich toward God (12:21)?
Prayer is both an ongoing activity and a specific endeavor. The lesson here in Luke is that we have the freedom to be persistent in our prayers. The reason this is possible is because of God’s goodness towards us (11:13).
Hypocrisy was Jesus’ main charge against the Pharisees (12:1). Hypocrisy means impersonating someone, playing a part, pretending. Spiritually it is seen in acting out faith without a true relationship with God.
Greed is a selfish and excessive desire for more of something than is needed. In our materialistic culture, we all struggle with stuff to some degree. Jesus cure for greed is to focus on kingdom stuff – those things that will last beyond this life (the word of God and the souls of men).
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