TEACH US TO PRAY

Any study about prayer starts with a relationship, and this relationship is with God. He is the center of all expression and movement of all true and faithful Christian. Looking for God, to get to know him, to trust in him and obey him according to his word is what molds us to be children of God, if we don’t have the knowledge about who God is, then the prayer of all those who prophesy piety will come to be an empty prayer. The depth of our prayer is the result of the knowledge we have about who God is. The Apostle Paul tells us in 1 Thess. 5:17 “Pray without ceasing” This means that every Christian needs to have full knowledge to whom we pray to and why we pray. The disciples went up to our Lord Jesus and asked him “teach us to pray” according to Luke 11:1-4. Jesus told them when you pray, say “our father which art in heaven”….. What we note is that our Lord Jesus has a very clear start, beginning with acknowledging the father, with words easy to understand. Jesus gave us the format in which we have to pray but that does not indicate that we are to repeat the same thing every time we go to our father in prayer, considering that prayer is according to one’s own needs. Jesus declares in John 14:13 “And whatever you ask in my name, that I will do, that the father may be glorified in the son.” Prayer is such a small word that describes a great experience for all those that form the kingdom of God (the church). Prayer is to be something natural for everyone one of us, but if we ask what the worst failure in a Christian life is, the answer would easily be prayer. Let’s suppose that someone tells you that a Christian that prays three or four times a day does not indicate that he is more spiritual than a Christian that prays once every two days or once a week. What would you say? Is this possible? Prayer is the only base that we have to communicate with our God. If we only pray once in a while or not at all it is because we don’t trust in God, however His word tells us in 1 Peter 3:12 “For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous , and his ears are open to their prayers….” We see then that the disciples were wise in asking our Lord Jesus to teach them how to pray. But for some reason the Christians today try to be better than the apostles by thinking that we don’t have to pray to be right with God. Jesus was the person to have the right to say that he didn’t need to pray since he was God, however we see the complete opposite, as he prayed as much as he could. We confirm this in the gospels when we read that “Jesus went to pray” or “Jesus prayed through the night” or “Jesus prayed till day break”. Someone may ask, what was the purpose for our Lord to pray at every moment? I believe that it is so that we could learn from his example. If Jesus being God and man at the same time needed to pray, then how much more is prayer important to us? If prayer held an important part in the life of Christ, than how much more is prayer important in our lives? Prayer is for those who say “God, be merciful to me a sinner” Luke 18:13. Prayer is confession, submission, is humility of heart to accept that we need help in every moment of our lives. For God the most wonderful thing that comes out of man is a humble prayer coming from a contrite heart. This is what the apostle John wrote in 1 John 5:14 “Now this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us”. These words is what allows us to say that if we persevere in our prayers we convert our Lord God in our helper and our provider, and he is willing to help us in anything of course according to his will as we read in 1 Juan 3:22 “whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight”. What more can we say? Jesus gave us many teachings like the Beatitudes, the Sermon on the Mount or the teaching of the true vine in John 15 among many others, but no teaching can compare to that of His life of prayer He had throughout His three and a half years of his ministry. This is why his disciples asked him to teach them how to pray. How many of us have gone to Jesus and asked him how to pray? Is God obligated to bless us and give us the things we need like if it was magic without remembering him? Prayer is to ask, prayer is to meditate, prayer is to submit and prayer is to call. ConclusionLet me tell you that a just prayer can only come out of a just mind, from someone who has a right life in the eyes of God. It is few that pray and fewer are those who persevere, prayer is indispensible in our lives as Christians. If you don’t seriously involve your life in prayer, then why should God be involved in your life? Just a few words of thought- If we are too busy to pray, then we should be too busy to receive as well.

May be the Lord Bless us today and always.

Antonio Arguera