Mensa Otabil - Teach Us to Pray
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Welcome to a brand new week. This week we’re talking about prayer. On the 23rd of June this year, we start what we call 40 Days of Power—40 days of prayer and fasting. To prepare us for these 40 days of power, we start in about a week and a half from now. I’m going to teach this week on prayer, and next week I will touch on fasting. Then we will begin our prayer and fasting.
I’m teaching on prayer, and the best way I can think of is to teach from the Lord’s Prayer, so we go to Luke chapter 11, verse 1. Now it came to pass, as he was praying in a certain place, that when he ceased, one of his disciples said to him, «Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.»
The Lord Jesus Christ lived his life prayerfully. He lived a life of prayer; he was a man of prayer and spent so much time in prayer, sometimes throughout the night praying. He also fasted and prayed, as we know. His disciples noted something about his prayer life that compelled them to want to learn from him. You have to understand that the disciples of Jesus were devout Jews, and by Jewish custom, every Jewish child, especially a male, by the age of 12 to 13, has to go through the Bar Mitzvah. They learn the rudiments of prayer and the Scriptures, so they know how to pray. Prayer was not strange to them, but there was something about the prayer of Jesus that compelled them to ask, «Lord, teach us to pray.»
There was something about the way Jesus prayed that was very different from the way they had learned to pray as Jews. The important thing we learn from here is that we must observe Jesus if we want to learn how to pray. Everybody prays in one way or another; everyone talks some kind of prayer. But there has to be prayer that is effective, and for prayer to be effective, we have to learn from Jesus. So we must observe Jesus, and we must learn from him.
It is possible to learn how to pray, and it is possible to be taught how to pray, but it is also possible for you to learn wrongly and be taught wrongly. The disciples obviously knew that they had been taught to pray, but they didn’t think they had been taught the right way to pray. Hence, they wanted Jesus to teach them his way of prayer.
Now, each one of us has learned to pray. You probably learned from your church, or from a prayer group you belong to, or you learned it on TV or radio, or you just learned by yourself how to pray and developed a system of prayer. But the question you should ask yourself is: Yes, I’ve learned how to pray, but is this the right way to pray? Is this the way that God wants me to pray? Does this kind of prayer get me the results I’m looking for? It may be enthusiastic; it may be sincere; it may be wholehearted, but is it the right way?
Jesus taught his disciples how to pray, and the prayer he taught them is what we normally call the Lord’s Prayer. I learned that prayer by rote when I was in primary school, and we recited it at our school assembly. But Jesus told them that prayer is not for repetition; he taught them the prayer to become the format for praying. So, if we want to learn how to pray, who better to teach us than the Lord Jesus Christ himself? Not just your pastor or myself, but let’s learn from Jesus.
Jesus taught his disciples how to pray, and the prayer he taught them is what we normally call the Lord’s Prayer. I learned that prayer by rote when I was in primary school, and we recited it at our school assembly. But Jesus told them that prayer is not for repetition; he taught them the prayer to become the format for praying. So, if we want to learn how to pray, who better to teach us than the Lord Jesus Christ himself? Not just your pastor or myself, but let’s learn from Jesus. From tomorrow, we’re going to learn from Jesus. We’re going to observe him in prayer, listen to the words he used to teach us how to pray, and the lessons he wanted us to learn when we pray. I trust that after we go through that, our prayers will be more focused and purposeful. Later on, we’ll also learn what Jesus taught us about fasting.
So, let’s have a good time this week as we learn to pray. Let’s pray. Say with me, «Heavenly Father, teach me how to pray. Help me to approach you in the right way and ask for the right things. In Jesus' name, Amen.»