look after things like that. You
have something more important to do. Your job is to go out and preach,
right away. That's what you would do if you really believed in me."

Still another man was willing to come, if only he could first go home
and say good-by to his family. Jesus saw that this man too had not
really decided to give up everything for God. He told him:

"You're like a farmer who starts to plow a field, and then turns
around and wonders if he shouldn't be doing something back at the
house. Unless you put your whole heart into following me, I'm afraid
you will never be of much use."

Even some of those who used to call themselves followers of Jesus were
going away. Jesus said to the twelve, who had been with him from the
beginning:

"Are you going to leave me too?"

Peter answered: "Lord, where would we go? We should die if we did not
hear your words. We believe that you are the Christ."

Jesus said, "Yes, you are the men I have chosen to be with me--though
there is one of _you_ who will come to a bad end."

He was speaking of a disciple named Judas Iscariot, though the others
did not know it. Jesus knew that Judas was not to be trusted.

In those difficult days Jesus spent much of his time in prayer. The
disciples felt that they also needed strength and help from God. Once,
when Jesus had finished praying, they said to him,

"Lord, teach us to pray, just as John the Baptist used to teach his
disciples."

So Jesus taught them a prayer, and this is how it went:

"Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom
come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day
our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil; for thine
is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen."

Then Jesus looked at his disciples, and told them that they ought to
pray more than they did.

"Suppose," he said, "one of you went to a friend's house at midnight,
and called through the window, 'Lend me some bread, for company has
come unexpectedly and I haven't anything in my house.' Your friend
might not want to get up out of bed, but if you kept on pleading with
him, he would give you what you asked for. In the same way, keep on
praying to God! Prayer is like knocking on a door. Knock, and the door
will be opened."

Jesus knew, better than the disciples did themselves, how much they
were going t