1 And it came to pass, that, as he was praying
in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord,
teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. 2 And
he said unto them, When ye pray….. – Luke 11:1–2
Roughly 60 percent of
Americans claim they pray daily. Another nearly 20 percent claim to pray
weekly. Those statistics suggest that all kinds of praying is going on, yet
there also seems to be evidence that what we call “prayer” doesn’t really fit
God’s definition or expectations. If we dig under people’s reports about
praying a lot, we would discover that many are going through the motions,
treating prayer the same way they approach rolling dice. Many feel frustrated
about prayer even as they try to practice it. They often mention prayer without
actually addressing God. When they do voice their prayers, they are talking to
someone they don’t even know. To them, God is the complete stranger on the
street they might ask for help if things get bad enough. How sad and empty
prayer must feel for many of them—for many of us.
As we develop the core
disciplines of a sincere faith, we must include work on prayer. Even those of
us who have grown up around praying people need instruction. Who better to talk
to us about prayer than Jesus Christ.
The twelve disciples spent
three years hanging out with Jesus. They watched Him, traveled with Him, and
listened to Him. There is no record they ever asked Him, “Lord, teach us to
teach,” even though He was a master teacher. Not once did they say, “Lord,
teach us how to do miracles,” though we know He worked awesome wonders. As far
as we know, the disciples’ only request like this was, “Lord, teach us
to pray.”
With a front row seat to the
life of Jesus Christ, what truly captured the disciples’ attention was His
prayer life. Jesus had a habit of retreating from the demanding crowds and
spending time alone with His Father in conversation, as seen in Mark
1:35. “And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went
out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.” Exposed to
Jesus 24/7, the disciples concluded, “The thing we’ve got to figure out is the
prayer thing. Jesus has that going on!”
Not surprising that Jesus,
the second person of the Trinity, eternally in perfect communion with the
Father, prioritized prayer. Jesus responded to the disciples’ request by
introducing what we now call the Lord’s Prayer (Luke 11:2–4, see also the
longer version recorded in Matthew 6:9–13).
Let’s camp today on the
disciples’ request. They not only went to the right instructor, but they also
went with the right intent. This was more than a plain “how-to” request; it was
a “give-us-the-desire-to-pray” petition. After noting a pattern of prayer in
Jesus’ life, they longed to see it replicated in their own lives. They saw
Jesus slip out of the house to pray in the early morning while they rolled over
for a little more sleep. They watched Jesus stop to thank His Father at various
times, drawing attention to the bigger picture (see Jesus’ conversation with
His Father outside Lazarus’s tomb, John 11:41–42).
Yes, they wanted direction
from Jesus regarding prayer, but they also wanted motivation. Before He even
gave them the pattern of the Lord’s Prayer, He graciously encouraged them with
the words,“When ye pray.” Not “if you pray” but “when you pray”—Jesus
knew the disciples would pray. Driven by circumstances or as a spiritual
discipline, the disciples would be talking to the Father in prayer.
They needed that expectation
as much as we do. Our failure to pray rarely rises from lack of technique or
subject matter. We often fail at prayer because we don’t keep at it. We try
prayer but quickly give up. Yet prayer is the breathing of our spiritual life.
Just as we can’t afford to stop pulling air into our lungs, so we also can’t
survive spiritually without the healthy respirations of prayer.
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