Lord Teach Us To Pray

Last week we discussed the attitudes that accompany different types of prayers. These included, awe, helplessness, faith, persistence, earnest, and boldness. Not every prayer will have all of these attitudes but some can be seen in different prayers. After reading about the attitude that prayer needs, you might be wondering “Well how do I pray?” Maybe this is something that is out of the ordinary for you, maybe you are a new believer and are struggling with prayer, or maybe you have been a believer for a while but don’t see the power in prayer anymore. I am not saying that there is a certain way to pray, or a certain step by step process in order to fulfill this aspect of the Christian walk. After all, we saw last week that prayer is how we speak to God. I think of all the different types of conversations that occur on a daily basis. There are conversations of joy, encouragement, hope, fear, sorrow, anger, and pain just to scratch the surface. All of these types of conversations also occur when we pray as well.

To be honest, when I first became a believer prayer was difficult for me. At first it was getting through the lies that I had no right to pray, then it was the fear that I would do it wrong, finally it was uncertainty in what to say. Thankfully, I had someone alongside me who patiently waited while I struggled with all of this. Perhaps that is why I am writing this now, I want to help pass on the encouragement to our readers that I received and to remind us all that prayer is our greatest weapon. You do not need to be worried about saying the wrong thing, God already knows what is on your heart. He simply wants you to speak to Him, He cares for you and wants to build a deeper relationship through prayer.

This is why I think the passage in Luke 11 is so important.

“One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” 2 He said to them, “When you pray, say: “‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. 3 Give us each day our daily bread. 4 Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.’””

Luke 11:1-4

Jesus Christ is giving us a great example on how we should pray, but to be clear this is not what He was praying before the disciples came to Him. The prayer in Luke 11 is an example that He is giving for you and I. In a future post we will discuss the Lord’s real prayer which can be found in John chapter 17.

Here, in Luke 11 we see that Jesus was praying and it was not until after He had finished did the disciples speak to Him. Christ was praying in a place where He knew He would not be interrupted. This is an aspect that a lot of us have difficult time with, there are so many distractions now that it seems difficult to set aside time to pray. However, we should not allow these distractions to get in the way of our time with God. We should not be sacrificing our time with the Lord for the things that distract us. That may mean that we get up a few minutes early or lock ourselves away in a room for a few minutes so that we can simply pray. Our prayer life cannot consist of only at meals or worse only at church. In order to grow in our walk and our relationship with God we need to spend time with Him. He does not care for quantity, only quality. Ensure that your time with Him is spent dissecting His Word in order to learn His voice, and spend time talking to God. Yes, talking, we have already established that prayer is our way of communicating with God and that means talking. Find little things in your day to say thank you for, and don’t be afraid to ask why certain things are occurring.

A further explanation on why we need to be spending quality not quantity time in prayer can be found in the book of Matthew. “5 “And when you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they will be seen by people. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. 6 But as for you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door, and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.” Matthew 6:5-6 we should not be praying to gain the attention of others. To do so is to show an unfruitful faith, those who make public performances of prayer are doing so to bring attention to themselves. Not to honor God. It is why Christ states that we need to go into a room and close the door, place yourself in an area where it can be only you and God for your prayers.

The next point that is often overlooked is the disciples asking Christ to teach them to pray. While it is important to ensure that we spend time in prayer away from distractions, we cannot forget that we need to be teaching fellow believers how to pray. For parents, this includes your children. Encourage them to pray and let them see you pray, they learn from you how to approach God. “18 “You shall therefore take these words of mine to heart and to soul; and you shall tie them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets on your forehead. 19 You shall also teach them to your sons, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk along the road, when you lie down, and when you get up. 20 And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,” Deuteronomy 11:18-20

For those without children, I am sure there are others around you that you can set an example for. It could be unbelieving family members, friends, or coworkers. It is important to remember that we are called to present the gospel which at times could be our relationship with Christ to others. Paul boldly declares this, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.” Romans 1:16.

For those who are reading this, and who are still stating, “But I don’t know how to pray!” I was one of you. I had no clue what to do and thought that I would surely mess it up. I ask you to look at the disciples for guidance in this. They came to Christ and asked Him to teach them to pray. In a quiet moment, away from any distractions, ask God to show you how to pray. Just like Jesus answered the disciples here, He will answer you and teach you.

Since it is in God’s nature to answer those who ask Him, He follows through on the disciples request to teach them to pray. He begins it first by stating, ““‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.” Luke 11:2 here we see a reverent attitude in prayer. Christ as God’s Son was coming before Him, while still being wholly God Himself, with awe and respect. He was not referring to God as His best bud or any other informality. He recognizes that the name of His Father is hallowed and sacred. When we are praying we need to come forward in this same manner of reverence and recognize who we are speaking to. This does not mean we cannot cry out to our Father when we need to, but realize who He still is.

To pray for God’s kingdom to come is to pray that He reigns on earth as He is in heaven. Remember, God created the universe. He is the maker of all things, there is nothing that can be done that can surprise Him, He has not lost control of this world. He is simply waiting for His appointed time to come and rule on earth. Christ is reminding us here that we ought to be praying that God uses us to complete His purpose. God’s will shall be done no matter what, but He wants to use us and has placed us in this moment in time for a reason. We need to pray that He puts us to work to accomplish His kingdom.

I do want to make a brief note here, by saying that we can accomplish His kingdom is not saying that we can usher in God’s kingdom on our own timing. We have no control over when God will come to reign on earth. To believe so is a false and unbiblical idea. What I am saying here is that we need to remember that we are servants of the Most High God and should be working to accomplish His plan of discipleship and spreading the Gospel.

Christ next states, “3 Give us each day our daily bread.” Whenever I hear this passage I am reminded of, “Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. 9 Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.” Proverbs 30:8-9 when you look at these two passages, Christ is teaching the disciples to pray for contentment. We should not be looking at what others have and pray for similar, nor should we pray that we lose what God has given us. Pray for the tools necessary for what God wants you to do. We need to be content with what God has given, anything else is to dishonor Him.

Christ closes out His lesson on prayer with this, “4 Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.” When we pray we need to remember forgiveness. Not just that we have been forgiven by the blood of Jesus Christ, but that we need to forgive those who sin against us.

There is one important thing to mention here, and it is an aspect on how we should not pray. Which can be found in Matthew, “7 “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.” Matthew 6:7. Do not use empty words when you can pray, this can be described as a repetitive phrase or unrecognizable vocalizations. Again, God wants quality not quantity. This goes for our words as well as our time with Him. God judges the heart, a person who desires to know the Lord and spends 15 minutes earnestly seeking the Lord is better than the person who desires to make sure everyone knows they are doing a 3 hour Bible study at the local coffee shop. One has their heart in the right place while the other is misguided.  

Finally, I encourage you to look at another passage found in Luke 11.

“9 “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. 11 “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!””

Luke 11:9-13

In this passage we see that Christ is reminding those around Him of what type of God our Heavenly Father is. He loves us enough to give us what we ask for in His will. Prayer needs to be done with the intent of wanting to be in God’s desired plan. We might not always know what He wants and when He says no, it means He has a plan for us. His intentions are better than our best intentions. We need to make sure our prayers are in line with His plans, and this can only be done when we are in His Word and eagerly lean on Him for our daily bread.

Seek the truth and encourage one another,

Alex