“He said to them, ‘When you pray…'” (Luke 11:2).

When Jesus was asked by his disciples to teach them how to pray, Jesus responded by teaching them through what the church calls, “The Lord’s Prayer.”

The first half of the prayer is about who God is. The focus of prayer is:

• Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name
• Thy kingdom come, thy will be done here on earth as it is in heaven

The first half of the prayer is about who God is and his character.

The second half of the prayer is requests:

• Give us this day our daily bread
• Forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors
• Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil

Then the prayer closes focusing on who God is.

• For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.

That’s a pretty good outline for how you pray.

Notice, you cannot pray this prayer and even once say, “I”.

You cannot pray the prayer Jesus taught us to pray and even once say, “My”.

You cannot pray this prayer without praying for others. To ask for “our” daily bread, you have to include others. Charles Royden says, “From the beginning to the end of the prayer, it does not once say, ‘me.'”

Prayer is God focused – God’s character, God’s kingdom, God’s will, God’s glory, God’s purpose.

Prayer is other focused – it certainly includes “us” as we are part of “our,” but it is exclusively about “us” and never “me.”

Alright, so when you pray:

• Focus on God
• Pray for “our” and “us”

“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.