In simplest terms, prayer is simply talking to and listening to God. But this does not mean that all prayer is the same. Just as we grow in other areas of our Christian life, we can grow in the area of prayer. I certainly know that over time, I have matured in that area of my life.
One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When He had finished, one of His disciples said, “Lord teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples” (Luke 11:1, KJV).
But wait a minute. We just said that prayer is simply you and I talking to God. So, what is the disciple talking about when he says, “Lord teach us to pray?”
Two Incentives to Learn to Pray
When the disciple made his request for the Lord to teach them how to pray, he was making at least two powerful and noteworthy statements about the spiritual discipline of prayer:
1. Prayer is important in a Christian’s life. No Christian can live a victorious life without a solid commitment to prayer. It is through prayer that we make our requests known to God. It is true that He knows all things, meaning He already knows what our needs are. But He still commands us to petition Him about those things. For instance, in the model prayer, Jesus taught His disciples to say, “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11, KJV). Oftentimes, we have not because we ask not.
Also, prayer is our means for soliciting God’s help in the time of adversity. He is the one we must trust to fight our battles. Furthermore, we must often pray to God to guide our steps and decision-making in life.
2. We can learn how to pray more effectively. The disciples already knew how to pray to some extent. But they wanted to learn to pray better—as John taught his disciples.
We don’t have to take a class on how to pray more effectively. Through Christ, we have a personal relationship with God. In prayer, we can talk with Him as a man or woman talks to a friend. The more consistently we pray in accordance with the will of God, the more effective our prayer life will be. The model prayer Jesus taught His disciples was foundational. Effective prayer, however, is not scripted. Rather, it flows from a personal relationship with God.
It must have really pleased the Lord when His disciples asked Him to teach them to pray. In effect, they were saying (1) we hereby acknowledge the importance of prayer; and (2) we want to learn to pray more effectively. As a pastor, I certainly would welcome such a request from the congregants.
Every Christian should have the two convictions stated above about the spiritual discipline of prayer. Just imagine how phenomenal the church would be, if that were the prevailing mindset in the Christian church today? Without a serious commitment to prayer, the Christian church will never have the impact on our world that she has been called or empowered to have.
Copyright © 2022 by Frank King. All rights reserved.
Bisi
Very good Pastor Frank. Its interesting that the disciples of Jesus Christ our Lord asked this questions. It indeed shows how important it is. Thank you for sharing.
frankking025
It is interesting that they made the request they did. One of the indications that we are growing as Christians is that over time we learn to pray more effectively.