1 Teach us to Pray
Week 1
Luke 11:2-4, Matthew 6: 9-13
We’re starting a series for the summer called, "Lord, teach us to pray," based on the model prayer of Jesus found in Matthew 6 and the shorter version of that, which is in Luke 11. And over the next couple of months, we’ll take a look at some of the common phrases in his prayer.
It was 19th century British poet Alfred Lord Tennyson who said, "More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of." Arguably, prayer can keep us grounded in faith more than anything else.
But do you think that we know how to pray as we should? Prayer is a spiritual discipline. It can be strenuous and frustrating at times, and mentally and physically demanding. Prayer can also be taken for granted and it can assume a place in our hearts and minds that’s apart from our daily routines and habits.
I ran across this short little tip that someone came up with, to help us to pray. It just uses your fingers and it goes like this:
2 Five Finger Prayer
1. Your thumb is nearest you. So begin your prayers by praying for those closest to you. They are the easiest to remember.
To pray for our loved ones is, as C. S. Lewis said, a ’sweet duty.
3 2. The next finger is the pointing finger. The index finger. Pray for those who teach, instruct and heal. This includes teachers, professors, doctors, pastors or other church leaders, or coaches.
They need support and wisdom in pointing others in the right direction.
4 3. The 3rd finger is the tallest finger. It reminds us of our civic leaders. Pray for the president, leaders in business and industry, administrators and those who lead in positions of authority. These people shape our nation and guide public opinion. They need God’s guidance and wisdom.
5 4. The fourth finger is our ring finger. It’s the weakest finger of the 5. It should remind us to pray for those who are weak, in trouble, or in pain, or are going through hard times. People facing difficulties need our prayers all the time.
6 5. And last is our pinkie finger, the smallest finger. It reminds us where we should place ourselves in relation to God and other people. And it reminds us to pray for ourselves, too.
And by the time we’ve prayed for the other four groups, our needs will be put into proper perspective and we’ll be able to pray for ourselves more effectively and efficiently.
7 I think the disciples in Matthew 6 and Luke 11 may have been struggling with prayer like we do sometimes. They didn’t ask Jesus how to preach or teach, but they recognized they needed some help with prayer.
In Luke 11, Luke mentions that Jesus was "praying in a certain place," when the disciples approached Him. And we don’t know why they picked this moment to talk to Jesus about prayer. It may be that his example of prayer was a sharp contrast to their prayer-life. But whatever the reason, after he was finished and seeing a deficiency within their lives, they strike up this conversation with Jesus.
And with 5 short words, they walk into something that is timeless and has the ability to change the way we pray. “Lord, teach us to pray.” I wish we knew how they said that. Lord, teach us…Lord, teach us…Lord teach us...Regardless, something interesting was going on with the way Jesus prayed compared to the way they were. So they knew that, “Hey, this is the way we should be doing it.”
And they noticed that when we pray, we receive a gift from God Himself. Prayer is communion – it’s interaction with him. By watching Jesus, the noticed that through prayer, we know God better and he knows us. They discovered that prayer is more than simply asking God for things; that’s a selfish means to an end. By watching Jesus, they saw that prayer is not an attempt to force the hand of God, but an act of submission to Him, with the understanding that God’s answers are wiser than our prayers. Prayer is to impress us with God, more than it is to impress God with us.
Many of us grew up reciting “The Lord’s Prayer.” It’s right up there with John 3:16. And because it’s so familiar, we can say those words without even thinking too much about them. The meaning can get lost in the familiarity.
But the depth of its words can be refreshed as we rediscover this prayer and try to look at it with a different perspective. Jesus said to "not keep babbling like pagans who think they will be heard because of their repetitive prayers" (Matthew 6:7). So as we review this prayer, with deeper understanding, we may find it to be as attractive as the ones who asked the question the first time. So here’s what they said:
8 “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”
2 He said to them, “When you pray, say:
“‘Father,[a]
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come.[b]
3 Give us each day our daily bread.
4 Forgive us our sins,
for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.[c]
And lead us not into temptation.[d]’” Luke 11:1-4 NIV
And Jesus was a little more specific when he first spoke about prayer in Matthew 6:
9 “This, then, is how you should pray:
“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,[a]
but deliver us from the evil,[b]’
For yours is the kingdom and the power and glory forever. Amen.
If we’re into learning about sentence structure, all the appeals and requests in this prayer are in the imperative mode in the original language it was written in, which was Greek, translated from Aramaic. And those words indicate an intensity to what was being prayed. The words of Jesus are intentional and well-placed.
Sometimes we think of prayer as a parachute-we’re glad it’s there, but we hope they never have to use it. But in reality, when it comes to prayer, we’re essentially saying that in our conversations with God that we’re relying on God. We acknowledge his supremacy and power and grace and sovereign will.
And when it comes to prayer, we sometimes struggle with how God answers our prayers. Many times, we look for “Yes” answers to our prayers, we expect “Yes” answers to our prayers, when God might be saying to us, “No,” or “Wait.”
C.S. Lewis said that he was grateful God hadn’t given him everything he wanted: "I don’t know where I’d be if I’d gotten all I asked for," he said.
So prayer may not change our situation, but it can change how we look at our situation or our circumstances. If our request is wrong, God says "No." If our timing is wrong, God says "Slow down". If we are wrong, God says "Grow a little", and if our request is right, our timing is right, and we are right, God (usually) says "OK!" In the book of 1 John, John says that our prayers need to be "according to God’s will" (5:14). And Jesus said it first: “Not my will, but yours.” (Matthew 26:39)
9 When we take a look at how Jesus talks about prayer, it’s rather basic. It avoids overstated, high-sounding phrases, and it sticks to simple, meaningful concepts. It begins with giving God glory, and then it transitions to bringing up our needs.
Someone said, "When God is first, prayer makes sense." The Lord’s Prayer is God-centered, not me-centered. It highlights the supremacy of God and it gives us a lot of latitude in our prayers.
Jesus doesn’t talk about the posture of how we pray. It doesn’t matter if we kneel, sit, stand, or lay face down or face up. He doesn’t dictate where to pray either. We can pray anywhere. Someone said, maybe it was a teacher, that as long as there are tests, there’ll be prayer in schools. It happens anywhere.
And when he talks about it in Matthew 6, he contrasts how the religious leaders of his day pray – most of them did it to sound important. So Jesus says to avoid that even if that means we have be secluded to keep our focus.
Jesus never talks about the manner of prayer when he gave us this example, either. Prayer isn’t getting a serious look on our face or talking in a certain tone of voice. He doesn’t even say to bow your head and close your eyes. You can pray with your eyes wide open and it’s not a sin!
And Jesus doesn’t specify the time for prayer either - some people organize their lives so that they have very specific times of prayer. Other people shoot prayers up to God all day long. And the point is that prayer is fitting any time, under any circumstance. We can go pray in church, we can pray while we’re driving, in the shower, or at the dinner table.
Paul put it this way: "pray continually." (1 Thessalonians 5:17) Author Matthew Henry wrote, "Prayer is the key to the am, and the bolt to the pm." In other words, prayer makes good bookends to every day. And when we live in a God-conscious state, we begin to recognize the presence of God all around us, which opens up the channel of communication with God.
10 Now, sometimes we avoid the Lord’s prayer. Some of us don’t like to pray the Lord’s Prayer because we want to avoid meaningless religious rituals. And I agree that we don’t have to pray these exact words all the time if we want to avoid praying words without meaning. Even Jesus doesn’t use the exact words in either instance in Matthew and Luke.
In Matthew, He introduces the prayer, not by saying "pray this", but "pray like this". The Lord’s Prayer is a blueprint for prayer- it’s a flexible model, not a rigid formula. Yet it is appropriate to pray these words because in them we unfold the entire message of the Bible and a summary of our relationship to God.
But there’s another reason people may want to avoid this prayer. Praying this prayer places some demands upon ourselves… it is a risky prayer:
I cannot say "our" if I’m living only for myself.
I cannot say "Father" if I don’t try to act like His child. (Not a child, but His child.)
I cannot say "Who is in Heaven" if I’m living like there’s no heaven or hell.
I cannot say "hallowed be Thy Name" if I am not striving for that kind of holiness.
I really can’t say "Thy Kingdom come" if I’m living like I have the world by the tail.
And I cannot say "Thy will be done" if I’m living like what God says doesn’t matter.
I cannot say "on earth as it is in Heaven" if I’m unwilling to serve Him here and now.
I cannot say "give us this day our daily bread" if I’m not relying on Him to provide.
I cannot say "forgive us our debts" if I hold a grudge against someone.
I cannot say "lead us not into temptation" if I deliberately place myself in its path.
I cannot say "deliver us from evil" if I haven’t put on the whole armor of God.
I cannot say "Thine is the Kingdom" If I am not loyal to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
I cannot attribute to Him "the power" if I fear the future or what people may do or say or think about me or if I’m living like I have the power.
I cannot give to Him "the glory" if I seek the limelight.
I cannot say "forever" if my life is bounded completely by the things that will eventually pass away or deteriorate with no eye for what lies beyond this life. (John MacArthur)
It was Puritan minister William Gurnall that said, "When people do not care what God speaks to them in His word, God does as little mind what they say to Him in prayer." Interesting thought.
So the question for us all is what are we relying on? For example,
-When we rely upon education, we get what education can do;
-When we rely upon skill, we get what skill can do;
-When we rely upon technology, we get what technology can do;
-When we rely upon organization, we get what organization can do;
-When we rely upon prayer, we get what God can do.
Russian reformer and Nobel winner Alexander Solzhenitsyn said in an address to Harvard University: "We have placed too much hope in politics and social reforms, only to find out that we were being deprived of our most precious possession-our spiritual life."
Those of us who are devoted to prayer, do things by prayer-they begin with prayer, not tacking prayer on as an afterthought, or asking God to bless our decisions after they’re already made.
When we’re faced with challenges and decisions, we almost have to retrain the way we think. The first thing to do is to go into it with prayer, not action.
Those devoted to prayer give priority to prayer, and are never too busy to pray. Prayer is not a special gift for a select few. It’s not reserved for those who’ve been ordained. All of us can pray as He modeled for us. So if we are followers of Christ and we want to learn to pray, Jesus said, “Here’s a good place to start.”
And that’s a good place for us to finish. As we close this morning, let’s pray together, the prayer Jesus taught us. And out of reverence and respect for Him, let’s stand together and pray with eyes wide open as his words sink into our inner selves:
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
Your kingdom come, your will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread,
And forgive us our debts,
As we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil,
For your is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
