Prayer Week One: Do we see the need to ask?
“Lord, teach us to pray…”
Luke 11:1
In Luke’s account of the Gospel, we read that after Jesus had finished praying, one of his disciples asked him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.’[1] Jesus responded, just as he had taught on the mount,[2] ‘Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come.’”[3]
In this there are several points that cut deeply to the heart, and Lord willing, we shall begin to explore over the coming days ahead. What I find so amazing in this story is that the disciples ask Jesus how to go about doing something, here being prayer.
Nowhere do we see the disciples asking him how to go about casting out demons, healing the sick, preaching the gospel, building the church, but yet they ask “teach us to pray.” I am amazed because the very thing the disciples ask to be taught is the very thing so very few care to learn and few churches and seminaries seek to instill into people. I am amazed because we seek to teach people everything under the sun, yet this one thing asked by the disciples of their Lord, is neglected today.
Yet, is there any wonder why the disciples asked this of Jesus?
No, for they saw him pray and saw his devotion to the Father. Think about this for a moment, if we have truly been changed, as we have claimed, and we have experienced the Savior, would we not want to be more like our Lord? Consider this truth about Jesus below and then apply it to passages such as John 17 and Luke 22:41:44.
“In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.”[4]
This first week, consider asking yourself, do I really understand my need to ask Jesus how to pray? Do I even care to ask the question? Where am I really at in my life when it comes to my desire to be like my Savior and to be alone, shut-up, to God?
“Is it not a proof that the Holy Spirit is to a great extent a stranger in the church when prayer, for which God has made such provisions, is regarded as a task and a burden? And does not this teach us to seek for the deep root of prayerlessness in our ignorance of and disobedience to the Divine Instructor, whom the Father has commissioned to teach us to pray?”
Andrew Murray
Resources
This week’s resource help comes from David M. M’Intyre entitled, The Hidden Life of Prayer & The Prayer-Life of Our Lord. This book is a good source for the serious minded Christian.
[1] Luke 11:1
[2] Matthew 6:9
[3] Luke 11:3
[4] Hebrews 5:7
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