Teach Us
Teach Us
I was reading It Happens After Prayer by H.B. Charles, Jr yesterday. He wrote this, “Luke 11:1 is the only place in the Gospels where the disciples directly ask Jesus to teach them something.” What is it that you think they asked Jesus to teach them? How to do miracles? How to love? How to fight the Roman government? No. No. And No. They asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. They had been observing Jesus and they had concluded that one of the most important things that he was doing, was praying. They wanted to know the secret formula to prayer so that they could unleash the power of God. Here is one conclusion we may draw from this request. They asked Jesus to teach them to pray because praying is probably the hardest thing we will do as a Christian. Harder than performing miracles. Harder than learning to love biblically. Even harder than knowing how to live in an ungodly world. Praying, which is vital and central to your walk with Christ, is a hard lesson to learn.
Think about it. How many times in your Christian walk have you found yourself neglecting your prayer life? Things may be going well and you find yourself praying less. God’s plans do not match yours and you find it difficult to speak with God. You desire to do something that you know is probably not best and so you simply choose not to include God in your plans. We must admit that learning to pray is hard. It is easy to run into the throne room, spew out your requests to God, and then run out to life. Is that really the prayer that pleases God? Jesus answered the disciples request by giving them the Lord’s Prayer. Beginning that prayer with the recognition and praise of the holiness of our Heavenly Father. Prayer is far more than simply spewing out requests to God. Prayer is about being humble, recognizing your dependence on God, worshiping, praising, gratitude, and yes, requesting. Prayer also involves listening. Pray can be work. Yet, prayer, individual and corporate, is vital for the protection and provision for our families, an intimate relationship with God and your fellow believers, and the blessing of our nation.
Let me give you one more thought this morning. H.B. Charles also writes that the answer Jesus really gave the disciples was, “God answers prayer”. He did not simply give them a technique or rote prayer to repeat. He demonstrated over the next few chapters, parable by parable, that God answers prayer. Look it up, it is encouraging reading. He is a loving Father who, like all good fathers, does not always give us what we want but he always hears us and answers us. What a privilege we have to come boldly into the throne room of our Creator and to be able to speak with him as a father knowing that he hears us and always answers our prayers. Why would we ever neglect that privilege?
I was reading It Happens After Prayer by H.B. Charles, Jr yesterday. He wrote this, “Luke 11:1 is the only place in the Gospels where the disciples directly ask Jesus to teach them something.” What is it that you think they asked Jesus to teach them? How to do miracles? How to love? How to fight the Roman government? No. No. And No. They asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. They had been observing Jesus and they had concluded that one of the most important things that he was doing, was praying. They wanted to know the secret formula to prayer so that they could unleash the power of God. Here is one conclusion we may draw from this request. They asked Jesus to teach them to pray because praying is probably the hardest thing we will do as a Christian. Harder than performing miracles. Harder than learning to love biblically. Even harder than knowing how to live in an ungodly world. Praying, which is vital and central to your walk with Christ, is a hard lesson to learn.
Think about it. How many times in your Christian walk have you found yourself neglecting your prayer life? Things may be going well and you find yourself praying less. God’s plans do not match yours and you find it difficult to speak with God. You desire to do something that you know is probably not best and so you simply choose not to include God in your plans. We must admit that learning to pray is hard. It is easy to run into the throne room, spew out your requests to God, and then run out to life. Is that really the prayer that pleases God? Jesus answered the disciples request by giving them the Lord’s Prayer. Beginning that prayer with the recognition and praise of the holiness of our Heavenly Father. Prayer is far more than simply spewing out requests to God. Prayer is about being humble, recognizing your dependence on God, worshiping, praising, gratitude, and yes, requesting. Prayer also involves listening. Pray can be work. Yet, prayer, individual and corporate, is vital for the protection and provision for our families, an intimate relationship with God and your fellow believers, and the blessing of our nation.
Let me give you one more thought this morning. H.B. Charles also writes that the answer Jesus really gave the disciples was, “God answers prayer”. He did not simply give them a technique or rote prayer to repeat. He demonstrated over the next few chapters, parable by parable, that God answers prayer. Look it up, it is encouraging reading. He is a loving Father who, like all good fathers, does not always give us what we want but he always hears us and answers us. What a privilege we have to come boldly into the throne room of our Creator and to be able to speak with him as a father knowing that he hears us and always answers our prayers. Why would we ever neglect that privilege?
Recent
Archive
2024
October
2023
December
2022
Categories
no categories
No Comments