Learning to pray

Learning to pray

“Lord, teach us to pray”. (Luke 11:1)

After the Lord Jesus had finished praying one day, an unnamed disciple said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray”. I am pretty sure that all the Lord’s disciples were taught, from childhood, to pray. The request, a prayer in itself, spontaneously emerged from the heart of the disciple as he watched the Saviour pray. It came from observing the Lord Jesus. It wasn’t a selfish request. The disciple didn’t go to the Lord privately and say, “Lord, teach me to pray”. He asked for all the disciples, “Teach us to pray”.

Interestingly, the Lord didn’t say to the disciples, “Today, I am going to teach you to pray”. No, He waited for the exercise of one heart. The disciple, moved by seeing the Lord in prayer, wanted, with all his fellow disciples, to be taught how to come to the Throne of Grace.

It is so important to allow God to speak to our hearts so that we can talk, in prayer, with Him. It is through the Word of God that we see Jesus and learn of Him. By allowing Him to minister to our hearts first, He prepares us to minister in prayer. We learn about the power of intercession by looking to the One Who ever lives to make intercession for us (Hebrews 7:25). He teaches us in prayer to lift our eyes to our Father in heaven in worship; to seek the will of God; to ask for His provision; to confess our failure; to seek the blessing of others; to know His direction and protection.

It was the Lord’s custom to pray daily. There are people and things which need our constant prayers. We should never stop

57 praying, for example, for daily direction, our children (whether young or older), family, assemblies, the Gospel and our government. We also need to pray regarding the present crisis and those suffering in it, until it is past.

In recent years we have started to pray geographically. Our prayers begin in one place and move to the next place around the UK and overseas. As we ‘visit’ each place in our prayers, the Lord reminds us of those for whom we should pray and also impresses on us fresh reasons for thanksgiving and intercession. Prayer is a ministry. It takes time and effort. Martin Luther once wrote, “I am so busy today; I will need to pray for at least two hours.” The need for prayer increases with pressures we face. It was the custom of the Lord Jesus to go to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. Gethsemane means, “olive press” – a place of pressure. It was there the Lord Jesus is spoken of as praying “more earnestly”.

I was talking with friends recently about the way we now patiently wait in line to do shopping. Also, the other evening after clapping the NHS, we stopped to talk with neighbours and because of social distancing we had to shout to each other! This morning we won’t have to queue at the Throne of Grace nor will we have to shout so that our Father can hear us. Because of what the Lord Jesus has done, we can come peacefully into His presence to pray and,

“in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving let our requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7).