Lord, Teach Us To Pray

By Chance Lester

“It happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray…”  Luke 11:1 NASB

What a powerful request, “Lord teach us to pray.”  I can’t help but to place myself in the room of conversations like these when I read the Bible.  Imagining myself as a fly on the wall as Jesus is completing His prayer and one of the disciples asks the question they must have all been thinking.  “Lord, teach us to pray.”  You could almost imagine everyone in the room suddenly leaning in to hear what Jesus would say in response.

The disciples had seen Jesus in His public ministry and heard His anointed sermons.  They had seen him operate in the gifts of the Spirit, watched the lepers cleansed, the paralytic walk, the blind see, and the deaf hear.  They saw Jesus do amazing things that they had never seen before.  From supernaturally feeding the multitudes, to casting out demons, raising the dead and calming the storm.  Yet, they never asked Jesus how to do any of these things.  They never asked Jesus how He knew about the Samaritan woman’s personal life.  The question was never asked about how He turned water into wine.  The disciples saw something that was of much more value in Jesus’ prayer life.  Their request was, “Lord, teach us to pray.”

I believe that the disciples saw something in the prayer life of Jesus that challenged them.  The boldness He had in saying statements like, “I only speak what I hear the Father say” and “I seek not my will, but the will of Him who sent me.”  What confidence and boldness Jesus knew in His relationship with the Father.

It’s so easy to drift to books, sermons and other forms of media to learn more on faith, healing and other topics.  However, we can not afford to lose sight of our prayer life with the Father: the closeness that comes from a constant communion with Him.  The disciples noticed that at the very core of all the great miracles Jesus did was His relationship with the Father.  They saw what happened after Jesus spent time with God.

Often the presumed shortcut of gleaning from someone else's relationship can be appealing and can be fruitful.  However, it will never substitute, or should never be a substitute, for our time with God.  If this was vital in Jesus’ ministry then I would suggest it should maintain a vital position in ours.

Maybe the Father is more available to His children than we think He is.  It pleases Him when we come to Him seeking guidance and wisdom.  If you want to be a person of prayer, consider the following questions…

What habits would a person of prayer have?

What would a person of prayer do on a weekly basis?

What about on a daily, or even hourly basis?

What habits can you start today that will push you towards becoming a person of prayer?

He is available to all who will come to Him.

“For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks,  it will be opened.”  Luke 11:10 NASB