Lord, Teach Us to Pray

Lord, teach us to pray

or The Only Teacher

And 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.

—Luke 11:1

The disciples had been with Christ, and seen Him pray.  They had learnt to understand something of the connection between His wondrous life in public, and His secret life of prayer.  They had learnt to believe in Him as a Master in the art of prayer—none could pray like Him.  And so they came to Him with the request, ‘Lord, teach us to pray.’

As we grow in the Christian life, the thought and the faith of the Beloved Master in His never-failing intercession becomes ever more precious, and the hope of being Like Christ in His intercession gains an attractiveness before unknown.

“Lord, teach us to pray.’  Yes, to pray.  This is what we need to be taught.  Though in its beginnings prayer is so simple that the feeblest child can pray, yet it is at the same time the highest and holiest work to which man can rise.  It is fellowship with the Unseen and Most Holy One.  True prayer, that takes hold of God’s strength that availeth much, to which the gates of heaven are really opened wide-=-who would not cry, Oh for some one to teach me thus to pray?

Jesus has opened a school, in which He trains His redeemed ones, who specially desire it, to have power in prayer.  Shall we not enter it with the petition, Lord! it is just this we need to be taught! O teach us to pray.

Lord, teach us to pray.  None can teach like Jesus, none but Jesus; therefore we call on Him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray.’  A pupil needs a teacher, who knows his work, who has the gift of teaching, who in patience and love will descend to the pupil’s needs.  Blessed be God!  Jesus is al this and much more.  He knows what prayer is.  In Heaven it is still His beloved work.  Jesus never taught His disciples how to preach, only how to pray.  He did not speak much of what was needed to preach well, but much of praying well.  To know how to speak to God is more than knowing how to speak to man.  Not power with men, bout power with God is the first thing.  Jesus loves to teach us how to pray.

Lord Jesus! I ask Thee this day to enroll my name among those who confess that they know not how to pray as they ought, and specially ask Thee for a course of teaching in prayer.  Lord! teach me to tarry with Thee in the school, and give Thee time to train me.  May a deep sense of my ignorance, of the wonderful privilege and power of prayer, of the need of the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of prayer, lead me to cast away my thoughts of what I think I know, and make me kneel before Thee in true teachableness and poverty of spirit.

And fill me, Lord, with the confidence that with such a teacher as Thou art I shall learn to pray.  In the assurance that I have as my teacher, Jesus, who is ever praying to the Father, and by His prayer rules the destinies of His Church and the world. 

—Andrew Murray