Some years ago, on the Focus on the Family radio broadcast, I heard a talk by a public-school teacher by the name of Guy Dowd who at the time was chosen as Teacher of the Year. After he spoke about his love for his students and the challenges that they faced, he quoted a poem by Edgar Guest that made a deep and lasting impression on me. It began like this… “I’d rather see a sermon than hear one any day. I’d rather one walk with me than merely point the way. The eye’s better pupil and more willing than the ear. Fine counsel is confusing, but example’s always clear.”
In today’s passage we read that after Jesus had finished praying, one of His disciples asked Him to teach them to pray, as John also taught his disciples. (Luke 11:1) Seeing Jesus pray was nothing new to them: how He prayed was. The fervor with which He prayed and the intimacy He enjoyed with His Father was unlike anything they had ever observed or been taught. As Jews, prayer was something they practiced; with Jesus, it was something He lived and breathed. They couldn’t help but make a connection between the time Jesus spent alone with God, and the power that permeated His life and ministry. Observing Jesus’ prayer life made them hungry to learn how to pray like Him. We may ask, “What kept Jesus from teaching them this valuable lesson?” ... Perhaps He was waiting for them to ask.
With Jesus, prayer was more than words to be recited from a holy book. Its success had nothing to do with eloquence, repetition, or putting on a show to impress those who might be listening. Prayer was a reflection of His relationship with the Father, and an expression of the holy desires that rose from the depths of His being. It was the way in which He showed His dependence on God, that He needed Him. Jesus knew that not only did the disciples need to be instructed as to how to pray, but even more so, they needed to be empowered to pray. In the book of Romans we are told that in spite of all the instruction that we receive, there is still a certain weakness in our praying that only the Holy Spirit can help us with: for we know not what to pray for as we ought. (8:26) The revelation and anointing of the Holy Spirit is key to having a deep and effective prayer life.
Jesus began with instruction. He told them that we should address God as our Father Who art in Heaven. He called attention to His holiness and taught that the interests of His Kingdom should come first in our praying. God has a will that He desires to accomplish here on earth, and we should believe Him to fulfill it. He assured them that their Father is lovingly concerned about their everyday needs and that if they ask Him for bread He won’t give them a stone. He emphasized that forgiveness is essential – that they needed to be both forgiven and forgiving. Finally, He warned them of the temptations that lurk in the darkness and how much they need their Father to lead them away from Satan’s pitfalls and bring them safely home. These are the principles that are necessary to pray properly. However, the effectiveness of our praying goes beyond mere instruction to include experience.
Jesus not only addressed God as His Father, but He knew Him as such. That relationship was real to Him and He walked in the consciousness of it constantly. He personally experienced the extent of God’s holiness and the glory of His kingdom. The desire for God’s will was a driving force that burned in His heart: He lived for the glory of God. He understood that daily bread was more than food and natural provisions - that man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Jesus didn’t just pray about forgiveness – He mastered it. To Jesus, prayer was more than just saying the right things, it was knowing and living them as well.
Could it be that the Lord’s Prayer was meant to be prayed into our lives as well as over our lips? Our prayer life should be a growing experience. The more the Holy Spirit reveals the Father to us and the things of His Kingdom, the deeper and more effective our prayers and the fruitfulness of our lives will be.
“Lord, teach me to pray.”
Perhaps the Lord is just waiting for us to ask.
