Learning to Pray
Join us Sunday, 9am, in the conference room, for a special time of corporate prayer.
“Lord, teach us to pray.”
This is really an amazing moment in the life of Jesus. According to Luke’s Gospel, Jesus’s famous teaching on prayer — often called “The Lord’s Prayer” — was in response to a simple question. Jesus had been praying alone, which was customary. Luke has already told us that Jesus would often get away to a quiet place to pray (see Luke 5:16).
As we might imagine, the disciples knew what Jesus was doing. They saw him step aside and leave the group countless times. Perhaps every now and then they would even find him on his knees, speaking with the Father.
We figure that by Luke 11 they had seen him enough to assess that his prayer life was different from theirs. He did something well that they wanted to do. So they asked him to teach them.
Everyone should be on the edge of their seats at this point in the Gospel of Luke.
The Lord Jesus is about to give us a lesson on how to pray. Jesus, the word who was with God, who is God, who has eternally existed in the fellowship of the Holy Trinity, is about to guide us in how to talk to God.
And what does Jesus say?
When you pray, say: “Father, hallowed be your name …”
And that’s good for now. Because this, already this, helps put our praying back on track with Jesus’s.
Seeking God’s Face
Our prayers should be more focused on the glory of God.
That’s the simplest way to put it.
So often, over time, we can treat prayer like we’re bringing our grocery list to God. Intending to be the persistent widow, we read through our petitions over and over again, which is holy and good, but only as long as we don’t forget this first, banner cry of our hearts — that the Father hallow his name.
The purpose of the universe, and the purpose of our praying, is that God display his glory for the delight of his people. It’s that we have more of him close and clear. We want his kingdom to come, not ours. His will be done, not ours. And everything we might ask him to do — everything about our desires — must be submitted to this.
As one brother has put it, there are really two different ways to pray: we can either seek the hand of God, or we can seek the face of God.
Seeking God’s hand is when we bring our grocery list — methodical and utilitarian. Seeking God’s face is when we first bring his praise — when we start there and stay there the whole time maybe, because there really is no other agenda than for him to be glorified.
This way of praying might seem difficult at first, because what do we say?
Guided by Scripture
Well, this is where the Bible guides us. Really, it does. The Bible actually teaches us how to praise God. And the Bible does this fundamentally because it shows us who God is.
This is what Daniel Henderson calls “Scripture-fed, Spirit-led, worship-based prayer.” We open the Word of God and begin by repeating what’s there, and we lean on the Spirit’s help. We do what Jesus tells us to, which has been right there in front of us the whole time. God, be glorified! God, be praised!
And we praise him.
Personally, I still have my lists, and I keep knocking about a handful of things I expect to knock about the rest of my life. But, truly, I want so badly to grow in my adoration and thanksgiving to God. I want to pray for his glory.
As we as a church continue to grow in corporate prayer, desiring more of God, this will be at the forefront. By God’s grace, we want to ask, and then act, “Lord, teach us to pray.”
