Luke 11:1 “…Lord, teach us to pray.” Christians are interested in the subject of prayer. Volumes of books have been written on the subject, and yet if you ask most Christians where they struggle in their spiritual walk or what area they would like to improve, prayer would be at the top of the list. The difficulty in prayer is not, from a lack of motivation. We can go before the throne of God and pour our hearts out to Him. We can ask of Him, we can seek Him, we can praise Him, and He hears us, through Christ our high priest. When we are born again by the Spirit’s power, He indwells us and is the cause for us to cry out to our Father in Heaven. When we come to saving faith in Christ, we have a mediator between us and the Father and God hears our weak and desperate cries, our prayers of thanksgiving and praise, and delights in them. Proverbs 15:8 “The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD: but the prayer of the upright is his delight.” Despite the assurances of being heard and answered, we struggle in prayer.
Jesus was a man of prayer. The eternal Son of God longed to spend time praying to the Father, and Jesus made prayer a priority. As the disciples listened to Jesus pray, in Luke 11, a longing came over them. They wanted to pray too – really pray, like Jesus prayed. Hearing someone who has power in prayer makes a Christian want to pray. The prayer of Jesus was so stirring, so authentic and passionate, those who heard him wanted to follow in the same path. One man noted that the disciples didn’t ask Jesus to teach them to preach or to teach them to heal, but to teach them to pray. His prayers made other people want to pray.
Though prayer is a spiritual activity, that doesn’t mean that it cannot be taught and learned. Most people learn to pray from listening to other people pray and we copy what we hear, good or bad. Jesus did not rebuke the men for asking for help and guidance. They wanted to pray better and deeper so they asked for help. Christian, do you long to really pray? The God who hears your prayers, and delights in your prayers, will guide and help you if you ask him to help you in your prayer life. Famed Bible commentator Matthew Henry prayed “Lord, teach me what it is to pray; Lord, excite and quicken me to the duty; Lord, direct me what to pray for; Lord, give me praying graces, that I may serve God acceptably in prayer; Lord, teach me to pray in proper words; give me a mouth and wisdom in prayer, that I may speak as I ought; teach me what I shall say.” If you have a longing to pray, follow the disciple’s pattern. Step one is to come to Christ and ask.
