Lord, Teach Us to Pray

Jesus' disciples made this request of him, and, according to Luke 11:2-4, He responded with what is a shorter version of what is commonly referred to as "the Lord's Prayer."

The interesting thing about the disciples' request is that it isn't, "Teach us how to pray," but rather, "Teach us to pray."  In other words, they weren't asking for instruction when they do pray, but they were looking for help in beginning to pray.  Perhaps the ancient world isn't that different from our present day after all -- people still struggled to discipline themselves to pray.  But because the disciples had seen their Lord as a man of prayer the likes of which the world had never seen (see Luke 4:42, 5:16, 6:12, and 9:18), they knew He had the secret to the prayer life they should have but don't.  Thus they ask Him, in effect, "Lord, give us a prayer life."

You remember Jesus' answer.  "When you pray, say: 'Father, hallowed be your name.  Your kingdom come.  Give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us out sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.  And lead us not into temptation" (11:2b-4).

Again, remember the request is not for a how-to, but for a key to open the door to a prayer life.  And Jesus' answer is a prayer template.  The upshot is that if you pray like this, it'll drive you deeper into the Father's heart, and you won't be able to help coming to Him regularly.  Not that you won't be tempted to blow Him off for more important things like television, Facebook, or sleep; but that you'll begin to see, because of this template, what your real needs are.

Is that not often the reason why you don't pray -- that you don't know what you should pray for?  You don't know your needs.  So Jesus tells His disciples and us what our needs are.  Aren't you thankful that He came "to bear witness to the truth" (John 18:37)?

Your Needs

Jesus here says that your first need is the hallowing of God your Father's Name.  He is holy, and He must be reverenced if you would have life and vitality.  Any time it appears that there is abundant life being experienced by an individual or a culture where the God of the Bible is absent is a counterfeit.  All of life in God's creation is dependent on His Name being reverenced.
Your second need is that God's Kingdom comes.  The Kingdom was inaugurated in Christ's first coming (Mark 1:15), and it will be consummated in His second coming (Luke 19:11, etc.)  The Kingdom is the reign of Christ over the universe, and the universe recognizing it.  Material and felt needs are priorities, but Christ's Lordship is priority one, out of which flows all else.  If you're a Christian, you've been transferred already into His Kingdom (Colossians 1:13), and your desire is to see His Kingdom spread.  Thus, start with prayer that God would make it spread.
Your third need is daily bread.  Retirement and savings are good.  Long-term stewardship matters immensely.  But you don't even know if you'll live past today.  So pray for God to provide daily, and for grace to live with what he gives.  God already knows what you need (Matt. 6:8).  But your vocalizing your dependence on Him today is essential to your spiritual vitality.  As you speak it, you believe it more.  And you must believe it, because your and my absolute and utter dependence on Him couldn't be more true (Ps. 104:27, Acts 17:25).

Your fourth need is forgiveness of sins.  You're positionally perfect in Christ, counted righteous, and in a gracious standing with God (Rom. 5:3-5).  But you're still a sinner (Phil. 3:12, James 3:2) with issues that, if you weren't in Christ, would be grievous offenses to God.  Truly, they are grievous offenses to Him.  But He's made you His own because of His own love and Jesus' sinlessness.  Thus you must confess your sin (1 John 1:9) and seek forgiveness, sure that He'll respond.
And note that the second clause of that request isn't a request, but an assumption.  It's assumed that if you're coming for forgiveness, you're practicing forgiveness.  In other words, you can't claim the Fatherly grace of God if that grace hasn't made you gracious and forgiving to others.  Because holding a grudge is a sign of idolatry -- what someone took from you either was or has become a functional god in your mind.  But when one becomes a Christian, they turn from idols to serve God through Christ (1 Thes. 1:10), and they labor to keep themselves from idols (1 Jn. 5:21).  So it's assumed that you're growing in grace and grace-giving.

Finally, your last need is to be kept from temptation.  Sin is so engrained in your heart that you have things going on "of the flesh" which you haven't got a clue about yet.  Temptations are ever waiting to overtake you (cf. Gen. 4:7,  1 Pet. 5:8), and you may have no idea.  So Jesus says you must pray that the Lord lead you away from those things that would entangle and corrupt your walk with Him.  I believe that a Christian is a person who has followed Jesus because they've come to see the seriousness of sin: it's desire to devour, and how, in the individual's life, it's already begun devouring.  Thus they've turned to the Lord for grace both in forgiveness and in transforming and conforming them to Christ's likeness.  They've come to Him for Him to stop sin's reign over them, that through Him grace will reign (Romans 5:21).

Simplify Your Approach

Robert Murray M'Cheyne once wrote that a man is no more than he is on his knees before God, "and nothing more."  A. W. Tozer once said, "God discloses Himself to "babes" and hides Himself in thick darkness from the wise and the prudent. We must simplify our approach to Him. We must strip down to essentials (and they will be found to be blessedly few). We must put away all effort to impress, and come with the guileless candor of childhood. If we do this, without doubt God will quickly respond."   Both men were expressing what Jesus had expressed to His disciples in this life-altering teaching (or at least, it should be life-altering): M'Cheyne, that prayer in its most basic sense is simply man before God, and thus you must bring yourself before Him and subject your needs to His priorities, and Tozer, that you must come with nothing but pure babe-ness -- with no illusion that you know better than Christ what you need, and with full confidence that our Lord, in teaching us what to pray, was in so doing teaching us to pray.

Our Lord didn't waste words, and He desires that when we approach Him, we wouldn't either.  As Tozer said, if we simplify our approach -- and what is more simple than coming to God how God Himself said to come? -- He will draw us in, wrap us up, never let go, and answer.  And we won't be disappointed with His timing or His answers, because we'll even consider the trials and valleys as graces from a Father who's Name we've learned to hallow, and who's Kingdom is our ultimate prerogative.