Teach Us To Pray
Photo of The Importunate Neighbour, (1895) — by William Holman Hunt.
Have you been taught to pray? Did you know that you could be taught how to pray?
We can learn how to pray. Jesus prayed. Jesus also taught his disciples how to pray.
In his gospel account, Luke shows us that Jesus prayed and Jesus’ disciples desired to learn how to pray. Luke tells us, “Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.’” (Luke 11:1, ESV).
Jesus modeled his prayer life for his disciples. Jesus often withdrew to pray, he prayed for people, and he taught his followers how to pray. Jesus’ patterns of prayer and teachings on prayer are especially abundant in Luke’s gospel account. Luke’s gospel says more about prayer than any other account of Jesus’ life, teachings, and ministry.
It was not uncommon in Jesus’ day, in the first century, for rabbis to teach their disciples how to pray in specific and in unique ways to that rabbi. It is no wonder why when Jesus’ disciples witnessed him praying that they requested for Jesus to teach them how he prayed—just as John the Baptist taught his followers how he prayed.
How a rabbi prayed illustrated what that rabbi believed about God, how they read and understood their Torah, and what their relationship with God was like.
We can learn a lot about prayer, and we can learn a lot about who God is, from Jesus and his example in his prayer life and through his teachings on prayer—especially from the gospel of Luke.
May we seek to be taught how to pray from Jesus’ own words and example and may we seek Jesus in prayer as we practice an intimate and consistent prayer life.
A Collect for the Sixth Sunday after Trinity (Proper 12): “Almighty and everlasting God, you are always more ready to hear than we to pray, and to give more than we either desire or deserve: Pour down upon us the abundance of your mercy, forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things for which we are not worthy to ask, except through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ our Savior; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.” (Book of Common Prayer, 2019).
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Photo of The Importunate Neighbour, (1895) — by William Holman Hunt.
