Luke 11:1-4 NIV
[1] One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” [2] He said to them, “When you pray, say: “ ‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. [3] Give us each day our daily bread. [4] Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation. ’ ”
Have you ever asked the Lord to teach you to pray?
As little children, many of our prayer lives began with, “Dear Lord Jesus…” That’s a good beginning for a five-year-old but, as mature believers, we should have advanced beyond the ‘toddler’ stage in our Christian walk.
The disciples saw something in Jesus’ prayers that fascinated them. They recognised an intimacy with the Father that was missing in their own lives.
Why did they want to learn from Jesus what John was teaching his disciples about prayer? Was John doing more to train his followers than Jesus was doing for His? This cannot be so, there must be another reason for their request.
What did John teach his disciples about prayer? We don’t know. However, since John had disciples, followers who lived with him wherever he went, and learned to imitate him as their rabbi (teacher), he must have passed on to them what he had been taught from childhood. The ‘tanach’, their Old Testament Bible, was their textbook, and its written prayers, which there are many, was their pattern. They would have recited set prayers from the tanach on many different occasions and for many situations and reasons.
However, I think that intimacy with the Father may have been foreign to them and missing from their prayers. This was something unusual and compelling that Jesus exemplified in His prayer life.
Sometimes, Jesus went out alone before dawn to pray, sometimes all night, for example, before He chose His disciples.
Luke 6:12-13 NLT
[12] “One day soon afterward Jesus went up on a mountain to pray, and he prayed to God all night.
[13] At daybreak he called together all of his disciples and chose twelve of them to be apostles…
Sometimes, He prayed in His disciples’ hearing, for example, before His death.
Mark 14:35-36 NLT
[35″+ He went on a little farther and fell to the ground. He prayed that, if it were possible, the awful hour awaiting him might pass him by. [36] “Abba, Father,” he cried out, “everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”
Our Scripture, quoted at the beginning, reveals Jesus conversing with the Father in His disciples’ presence. Prayer was such a significant part of His life that He spoke to the Father anywhere and everywhere in any and every situation.
What He saw, heard, and learned from the Father, as a Son, He put into practice in His earthly life.
John 5:19-20 NLT
[19] “So Jesus explained, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does. [20] For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing…”
The Iove and unity between Father and Son was so strong that Jesus did everything He could to protect that bond by the intimacy He shared with the Father, and miracles happened.
Before He fed a crowd of hungry people, Jesus thanked the Father for the food…
John 6:11 NLT
[11] “Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks to God, and distributed them to the people. Afterward he did the same with the fish. And they all ate as much as they wanted.”
and everyone had enough to eat!
When He stood outside Lazarus’ tomb, He thanked the Father for hearing Him…
John 11:40-44 NLT
[40]” Jesus responded, “Didn’t I tell you that you would see God’s glory if you believe?” [41] So they rolled the stone aside. Then Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, thank you for hearing me. [42] You always hear me, but I said it out loud for the sake of all these people standing here, so that they will believe you sent me.” [43] Then Jesus shouted, “Lazarus, come out!” [44] And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound in graveclothes, his face wrapped in a headcloth. Jesus told them, “Unwrap him and let him go!”
and Lazarus came out of the tomb, alive!
What does this witness say to us?
Prayer is not about getting God on our side. Prayer is, at best, getting ourselves onto God’s side. When we look carefully at Jesus’ reponse to His disciples’ request, it’s all about where we fit into God’s plan. This requires humility, submission, and intimacy with the Father.
Jesus gave His disciples a pattern prayer, not so much to be recited but to guide them and to help them understand how to experience intimacy with the Father.
Why, then, did Jesus wait to be asked, on this occasion, to teach these men to pray? Did He want to arouse a desire in their hearts, to show them, first, through His own life, that prayer is the expression of union with the Father?
Jesus lived out the prescription of Solomon…
Proverbs 3:5-6 NLT
[5] “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. [6] Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.”
That’s true prayer in a nutshell, perfectly modelled by Jesus and given to us as the only way in which to live the life here and now that prepares us for the life to come.