Teach Us to Pray
Scripture Reading: Luke 11:1-13
“Praying is just talking to God,” is often the well-meaning but naïve response given to someone who confesses their struggles with this thing called “prayer.” The implication is that prayer is simple, there’s nothing to it, and it should be as natural as a child talking to her father. Maybe you have said something like that before. While I understand the sentiment, I don’t think it is an accurate or truly helpful response to the underlying question.
Maybe some people find prayer as easy as breathing, but I suspect most of us have struggles, at least occasionally, when we try to pray. It might help you to know that if you have found prayer difficult at times, you aren’t alone. Even Jesus’ disciples found prayer challenging.
In our Scripture reading this morning, the disciples approach Jesus with a request. They wanted a seminar or class on prayer. They asked the Lord, “Teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” The context indicates that two things prompted this request. First, John the Baptist taught his disciples to pray. Jesus’ disciples were aware of this and saw this as advantageous and something deficient in their training to that point.
Second, we see that Jesus had just finished praying when the disciples came to him with this request. Luke’s Gospel emphasizes Jesus’ prayer life. Seven times Luke describes Jesus praying (3:21; 5:16; 6:12; 9:18; 9:28; 11:1; and 22:39-46). The disciples observed Jesus’ praying and the strength and vitality of His prayers revealed the weakness and lifelessness of their own.
You might have had similar feelings after hearing some dear saint eloquently pray with words that seemed to flow from their tongue. While they were bringing heaven near with their praise and thanksgiving, and seemingly causing the very angels of God to stand at attention with their pleadings for the saints, you were comparing your own feeble attempts at prayer to their grand execution of this work and judging yourself to have fallen short.
You are in good company with the twelve. You will notice what Jesus didn’t do about their request. He didn’t give them a flippant answer about how prayer is just talking to God. He didn’t rebuke them for making the request. Therefore, without saying it, Jesus acknowledged the validity of what they were asking for and the underlying reason for it. The way He responded showed that what they were struggling with was a legitimate issue.
From my earliest days as a Christian, I have desired to be a man of prayer. I have prayed for that to be true and desired for that to be true. It isn’t. Not in the way I want it to be true. It’s not that I don’t pray. I do. Every day. But my praying always seems feeble. I limp along at it. It is something I struggle with. Therefore, I pray with the disciples, “Lord, teach me to pray…” Not because I don’t pray, but because I find my prayers too shallow, too weak, and too ineffective.
So, Lord, teach me to pray.
Maybe you might want to pray for that too.
