Learning To Pray

Jesus gives us a blueprint for prayer.

Luke 11:1-4  Once Jesus was in a certain place praying. As He finished, one of His disciples came to Him and said, "Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples."  2  Jesus said, "This is how you should pray:  "Father, may Your name be kept holy. May Your Kingdom come soon.  3  Give us each day the food we need,  4  and forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. And don't let us yield to temptation. "

Luke 11:9-10  "And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you.

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The word was out that John the Baptist disciples knew how to pray and Jesus disciples wanted to get some instruction from him. Nobody saved a copy of the "John the Baptist prayer" for us so we could know if he did a good job. We just know that he taught them and it made the disciples think that maybe they should get some instruction from Jesus about it.

It is interesting to note that the disciples didn't ask how to preach or how to love more or how to do ministry, the only request that we have recorded in the Bible is to be taught how to pray. Perhaps they saw him pray or overheard it and they realized that their prayers were not the same as his, maybe prayer was a struggle for them so they wanted to know more.

I bet the disciples already knew how to pray and they probably did it sometimes. They probably prayed plenty of times while they were out fishing and their nets were coming up empty or when a bad storm came upon them while they were out in the lake.

I grew up in church and I don't remember ever not knowing how to pray, sometime between the nursery and the children's department I was taught how to do it, but even so if I could ask Jesus to teach me then I would probably do like they did. I need to follow their example and ask Jesus to improve my praying!

Jesus gave us a model of prayer, a basic guide to the content of our prayers, it is easy to remember this format with the ACTS acrostic:

Adoration, this is the proper place to start and it is where we should spend the majority of our time. (Exodus 15:11, Psalm 106:2)

Confession, after spending time in worship we should admit to God how we have fallen short of his glorious standard. (Romans 3:23)

Thanks, we have been given so much and it would be rude to never say thank you for our blessings, especially when you are going to ask for more. (Philippians 4:6)

Supplication, asking God to meet the needs of others and then for ourselves

It is very easy to get the acrostic out of order and instead of ACTS we actually do SCAT. We ask for our own "needs" and make that our priority when we need to begin asking from God after we have given to  him the worship and praise that he deserves.

It doesn't matter that I have been taught about prayer all of my life, I can still use words like frustrating, boring, confusing, intermittent, difficult, or struggle to describe my prayer life. It is easy to get discouraged and give up.

Hebrews 5:7 While Jesus was here on earth, He offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears, to the One who could rescue Him from death. And God heard His prayers because of His deep reverence for God.

Do you think it was easy for Jesus to have a prayer time?

If you think that you are too busy and that too many people are trying to get your attention and there isn't any way to get alone for prayer then consider how it was for Jesus. He had crowds of people begging for his attention and asking him to do something or answer some question. There wasn't hardly a moment of rest!

Jesus was in prayer in the garden just before he was arrested. I am pretty sure that I would be running away scared trying to find a place to hide but he was out in a public place where he could be found. I have to wonder if he "offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears" every time he got alone for his quiet time or if it was just his final prayer in the garden.

Was that the serious, passionate praying that made the disciples want to know more? I can be just like the disciples, I can be in my quiet time and suddenly wake up and realize that my lack of passion in my prayer time made it too easy to fall asleep.

Prayer 101

✔   Jesus prayed for others. Matthew 19:13-14, John 17:9
✔   Jesus prayed with others. Luke 9:28,
✔   Jesus prayed alone. Luke 5:16
✔   Jesus prayed regularly. Luke 5:16
✔   Jesus prayed in nature. Luke 6:12
✔   Jesus prayed all night. Luke 6:12
✔   Jesus prayed with passion. Luke 22:39-44
✔   Jesus taught persistence in prayer. Luke 18:1

Jesus life gives us an example of prayer, how to do it, what to ask for and when we should pray. There isn't anybody better to teach us how to talk to God than the Son of God!

Philippians 4:6-7 Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done. Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

There is still a lot for me to learn and put into practice when it comes to praying. After all of these years of experience I feel more like a prayer wimp than a prayer warrior but God doesn't want me to put any value on my feelings, Satan uses them to get me to stop talking to God.

Thank you Lord for desiring a relationship with me and being concerned about me. Help me Lord to make prayer a priority in my life everyday.

RELATED ARTICLES

Pray The Bible (matthewhenry.org )

Prayer And The Difference It Makes (focusonthefamily.com)

Prayer For Beginners (desiringgod.org)

When Heaven Is Silent (youtube.com)

Prayer Resources (navigators.org)

Red Letter Prayers - The Jesus Way (youtube.com)

Talking To God About His Family

We need God to: “Give us,” “forgive us,” and “lead us.”

Luke 11:3-4 "Give us day by day our daily bread. 4 And forgive us our sins, For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one.”

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In the previous post we looked at the first half of the Lord's Prayer and we saw that it gave us an example of how to "Talk to God About God."

We looked at the part of the prayer that says: “Hallowed be Your Name,” “Your kingdom come,” “Your will be done.” We learned that we should get our minds away from our selfish ways and focus on him, then we will be able to pray as we should for our own needs and desires. It doesn't seem proper to come before the throne of grace without revering God's name, without desiring for his kingdom and his will to be done.

The second half of the Lord's Prayer is a look at talking to the Father about His family—the children’s need for provision, pardon, and protection: “Give us day by day our daily bread,” “Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us,” and “Do not lead us into temptation.”

His Provision – Give us this day our daily bread.

God cares for our needs and it is okay to talk to him about them. Praying for our daily bread shows a level of dependence on God. This doesn't have as much meaning to us and it is easy to forget to be truly thankful for our daily bread when we have freezers and cabinets full of groceries at home. When Jesus gave this example of how to pray there was a much greater concern for getting food for the day.

We need to realize our dependence on God for everything that we need. Jesus didn’t give us a blank check to ask for anything and everything. Most of us need to realize how blessed we are and that we need to pass some of those blessings on to others.

His Pardon – Forgive us our sins.

After we ask for provision we need to ask for pardon. We spend a lot of time worrying about our daily provision and we dwell on that a lot but most of us are not as concerned about our need for forgiveness.

We all like to get forgiven but we don't like to offer it to others. Jesus told us to ask for forgiveness for our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Why did he have to put that in there? Forgive me but why do I have to forgive others?

If I honestly see my sin the way that I should then I realize that I am not righteous and I am in desperate need of God’s forgiveness. If I am truly grateful for God’s forgiveness in my life then I will feel obligated to show forgiveness to others. Since God has given up his right for revenge and he has offered mercy to me then I must do the same. We are never more Christ-like than when we offer pardon to those people in our lives that have hurt us.

His Protection – Do not lead us into temptation.

You may have heard the saying, "Do not lead me into temptation, I can find it myself." We seldom want to be delivered from temptation, it promises too much fun, maybe you have heard it said “Don’t resist temptation, it may not come back.” We like to play around with sin.

We have a natural inclination to do the opposite of what God desires. It isn't easy to consistently do what pleases God. The work of Satan threatens to seduce us to live life apart from God. We will be tempted to build ourselves up and honor our own names, to build our own kingdoms, to take credit for supplying our own needs and denying our need for forgiveness.

God Provides
Philippians 4:19  And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

I need to realize my complete dependence on God for provision, pardon, and protection. I have nothing without him. He takes care of my daily needs as well as my need for forgiveness and for protection until I reach my eternal home.

Talking To God About God

Jesus gives us a blueprint for prayer.

Luke 11:2 So He said to them, “When you pray, say: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.

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In response to the disciples request to be taught how to pray, Jesus gives them an example of the content that should be in our prayers, this basic outline is a great example for us to use when we pray. Just be careful that it doesn't become the only prayer that you say and allow it to be meaningless repetition.

The Lord's Prayer can be divided into two major sections. The first half of the prayer is talking to God the Father about his person, his program and about his purpose. This is the part of the prayer that says: “Hallowed be Your Name,” “Your kingdom come,” “Your will be done.”

In the next post we will look at the second half of the Lord's Prayer and see the need to talk to God about his family and the needs that we should ask him to fulfill. We will look at his children’s need for provision, pardon, and protection: “Give us day by day our daily bread,” “Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us,” and “Do not lead us into temptation.”

His Person – Hallowed be your name

First of all we need to begin by remembering who we are praying to. Jesus says that when we come to the God of the universe in prayer we don't have to shake in fear but instead we can call Him Father.

This prayer is very well known and it is quoted by many people that don’t have the right to say it. Not everyone can call God their Father. Jesus taught that his children are allowed to call God their Father but they are the only ones. Jesus is the only way for us to enter into a relationship with God and become members of His family. He is our Father and we are His children.

1 John 3:1  See how very much our Father loves us, for He calls us His children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don't recognize that we are God's children because they don't know Him.

It is a wonderful privilege to be able to call the one and only true God our Father, a privilege we definitely take for granted.Just think about it, we address him as, “Our Father in heaven,” I should be in awe of his greatness and be amazed that God allows me to call him Father. The one that I come to as a loving Father is also the sovereign God of heaven, the God of all power, and the God of all authority.

Revelation 4:11  "You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power. For You created all things, and they exist because You created what You pleased."

To the early Jewish Christians, having a proper awe of God was probably easier than understanding their new intimate relationship that they have through Jesus. Unfortunately in our day, the pendulum has swung to the other extreme, we talk about God as the "big man upstairs" without honoring his name.

We are to honor God as holy. We should celebrate who he is as a part of worship during our prayer time. We need to make sure that our prayers show that we honor and revere God.

His Program – Your kingdom come

The second request that we direct to the Father about the Father is not only devoted to the person of God but also to the program of God.

Revelation 11:15  Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices shouting in heaven: "The world has now become the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign forever and ever."

The second request is “Your kingdom come.” Jesus was speaking here about His future messianic reign on the earth. All through Scripture, the story of the Bible looks forward to the return of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, who will rule in righteousness when the kingdom of this world will become the kingdom of our God and of His Christ.

History seems to be an endless cycle of the same events going on day after day but history is “His story” and it is headed to a definite climax. We look forward to the day when he will reign on earth and everything will be made new.

Matthew 4:17  From then on Jesus began to preach, "Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near. "

Until that day comes we can allow God's kingdom to come in our own lives. When we pray, “Your kingdom come,” we can ask for God's kingdom and his rule to be established in our own lives. We should let him be the King of our life as we submit to his will. I need to make my life his throne right now!

His Purpose – Your will be done

Next we are to pray for that His will will be done on earth as it is in heaven. God's will is for us to obey his law and for us to be holy. We should know what he expects from us through his word and we should be willing to do it.

Romans 12:2  Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

A lot of times it seems like we are praying for our own will to be done instead of God's. We lose our perspective and forget that it isn't all about us and God isn't our cosmic butler that we can boss around. Before we ask for our selfish desires we need to focus on the big picture of God's will.

We can stop the rebellion in our own lives as we line up our will to God's will. We can rebel against the ruler of this world, go against the flow, and begin to allow God's will to come to pass on our little piece of the planet.

The point of these first three petitions is to get our minds away from our selfish ways and focus on him, then we will be able to pray as we should for our own desires. It doesn't seem proper to come before the throne of grace without revering God's name, without desiring for his kingdom and his will to be done.