Lord, Teach Us to Pray

“Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1).

There’s not a single record of the disciples asking Jesus to teach them how to grow the church, to do amazing miracles, to heal people, to evangelize.

What the disciples do ask Jesus is to teach them to pray.

There was a way in which Jesus communicated with God that compelled the disciples to ask Jesus to help them communicate with God in the same way.

The first thing about prayer is that prayer recognizes that God is God, and that the world as it is, is not what God intends. Prayer recognizes two things. First, that God is the only one with power to change the world. We cannot do it in our own power. Secondly, prayer recognizes that the world is not yet what God desires for it to be.

When Christians pray, it is not because we believe in the power of prayer. We believe in the power of God to make this world as it is in heaven. It is because we believe in God that we pray.

Finally, when Christians pray, the act of prayer confesses that God is at work to transform the world, and prayer and the one who is praying confesses the desire to be a part of God’s solution to the problems of our world. You cannot pray that God bless, love, forgive, and change the world without also praying your willingness to be a part of God’s answer to that prayer.

How is your prayer life coming along? Are you intentional about praying? Are you regularly investing your time in praying for God’s transforming work in our world through our church?

God is at work. Join God in his work. Be intentional about praying.

Love what John Bunyan said about prayer: “You can do more than pray after you have prayed. But you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed.”