“One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1).

The disciples never asked Jesus, “Lord, teach us to do miracles.” That could have come in handy. People love miracles.

The disciples never asked Jesus, “Lord, teach us to preach.” Preaching effectively is kind of important when trying to build churches and grow faithful disciples. But, the disciples never asked Jesus that.

The disciples never asked Jesus, “Lord, teach us to build and grow churches.” That would have been very practical as they would be in charge of doing exactly that when Jesus ascended into heaven. But the disciples never asked Jesus that.

But the disciples did ask Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray.”

Why do you suppose that is?

Look at the context of when the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray. It was as the disciples saw Jesus praying. What the disciples saw over and over again was who Jesus was before he prayed, and who Jesus was after Jesus had prayed. There was such a difference that they too wanted to know what Jesus was doing in prayer. “Lord, teach us to pray like that. Teach us to pray in such a way that we too are changed, more confident of what life is all about, at peace about what God is up to.”

Jesus was different after he had prayed, and they wanted what Jesus had.

As you know, we have been looking at prayer for the past couple of weeks in our daily meditations. I encourage you to ask Jesus to teach you how to pray.

Go ahead. Do it. Talk to him right now. Ask him to teach you how to pray as he prayed.

“And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ – to the glory and praise of God” (Philippians 1:9-11).

When we pray, who changes? Do our prayers change God?

If we don’t pray for God’s blessing upon our families, was it God’s intent to not bless our families? If we don’t pray for God’s blessing upon our church and her ministry, was it God’s intent to not bless our church and her ministries?

Do our prayers change God?

Of course, that would be crazy. God already wants to bless our families and our churches. Then what changes when we pray?

The purpose of prayer isn’t to change God. The purpose of prayer is to change us; “that our love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that we may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ – to the glory and praise of God.”

We are changed when we pray. We become more aware of God’s presence and his truth. We are changed by praying to God.

We pray, not so God will hear us, but so we will hear God.

“Pray continually” (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

Pray instead of worrying.

Pray instead of stressing.

Pray instead of panicking.

Pray instead of overthinking.

Pray instead of assuming.

Pray instead of controlling.

Pray instead of wondering.

Pray instead of complaining.

Pray instead of whining.

Pray instead of seething.

No matter what you are faced with, in every situation – pray.

“Pray continually.”