“Teach Us To Pray” Part 1
“One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray…’
—Luke 11:1a
Praying to God with the sole purpose of asking and desiring to better learn HOW to pray is one of the most powerful things a Christian can do. PRAYER IS ESSENTIAL! Anything you desire to do or are called to do as a Christian man or woman must include an aspect of Biblical, Jesus-modeled prayer, (more on Jesus-modeled prayer in a bit). Notice a few insights from Luke 11:1:
Jesus prayed
The disciples observed His prayer life
The disciples recognized a need to learn
The disciples had the humility to ask to be taught
What happened next was Jesus responding by giving clear instruction on how to pray (Matthew 6:5-13, Luke 11:1-13). Sometimes the student needs to prepare their hearts to receive before the teacher offers the revelation and instruction. I pray that you are a student of the Word of God and Spirit of God who’s ready and willing, like the disciples, to humbly come before the Teacher and say, “Teach me to pray.” In this teaching series I’ll cover:
The foundational definition of prayer
The various types of prayer
The keys to answered prayer
and much more!
TIME TO UNLEARN
As we begin, let me encourage you to have an open mind about what prayer is and how it is to be practiced. We live in a time when EVERYTHING IS SUBJECTIVE. Meaning, “for me prayer is…” “My truth is…” This all sounds good and personal, but in reality, someone can pray according to tradition, their feelings, something they heard from a college professor or in a yoga class; and from God’s perspective be praying in a way that’s completely off the mark. If there were no “mark”, no preferred prayer pattern the Lord approves of, the disciples would have never asked to learn and Jesus wouldn’t have had anything to teach. Jesus did not respond by saying, “No worries guys, just do you! Pray in whatever way feels comfortable and natural for YOU!” Sorry, our feelings or natural inclinations should not guide our prayer lives. But the Word of God and Spirit of God should.
PRAYER IS A DIALOGUE
Most of us have been taught to practice prayer as a monologue where we do all the talking and letting our request be made known to the Lord. Now of course speaking to God is a necessary part of prayer, but so is LISTENING TO GOD. If our belief is that we are praying to a God who hears and will answer, we should also habitually demonstrate an expectation of hearing His voice and listening.
“My sheep LISTEN to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”
—John 10:27 NIV (emphasis added)
God is not ALL EARS. Meaning prayer should be limited to you and I doing all the talking. In fact what God has to say is far more important then we often give credit to. I know this might sound different than anything you’ve heard or been taught about prayer, but check this out from Ecclesiastes 5:1,
“1 Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong. 2 Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.”
Straight from the Word of God we are told,
“Go near to LISTEN…”
“Do not be quick with your mouth…”
Maybe the disciples recognized a level of reverence that Jesus operated in when He prayer to God the Father. One that included moments of focused, meditative silence. Silent, in order to listen. We must understand this, JESUS LISTENED TO GOD THE FATHER! He only did the things that were pleasing in His Father’s sight, (John 5:19). We too should desire to have the same commitment to hearing and obeying the will of the Lord in our lives.
BE ENCOURAGED
I pray that you are encouraged and uplifted by the dialogue aspect of prayer. It’s a very good thing to know that God hears and answers. Sometimes He answers by what He does. But we must be open and willing to receive when He answers by what He says. The voice of the Lord can speak to us through His Word (the Bible), His voice in our hearts (conscious), our thoughts, other believers, dreams, visions, and of course He still speaks audibly. God is powerful, loving, caring, listening and speaking. May this teaching be the beginning of a more intimate, fruitful and powerful prayer life with the one true and living God.