Jesus, Teach Us To Pray

Prayer is a key discipline in your discipleship to Jesus. And while prayer is just a practice, I would boldly claim that without true prayer everything is nothing.

We can see that prayer is important in Jesus’ life. If you open your Bible to the Gospel of Luke and you flip to literally any page you can find scripture where you can see Jesus going to pray.

Jesus did a lot of awesome stuff but prayer was woven into his existence. Prayer was the foundation for literally anything that he did. And he valued it more than sleep. Because of that, it’s not surprising to me that the only instructions the disciples of Jesus ever asked for were…

Master, Teach Us To Pray

And he tells them with what we know today as the Lord’s Prayer. And let me tell you, the Lord’s Prayer is way more than a liturgy to recite.

It’s a strategic template for a powerful prayer life.

In the first half, we see Jesus’ framework for prayer. To our surprise, we don’t see a list of wants and needs, but we see declarations of adoration and surrender to that Father.

Our Father in Heaven

The way we look at the one we’re praying to will either make or break our prayer life. Always remember, He is your Good Father with even better intentions.

Hallowed Be Your Name

Hallowed or “set apart as holy” sounds like a moral word to us but there is so much more to it. The holy is the beautiful and the good and the true, the unique with no parallel in the universe. This verse is an invitation for the Father to set Himself apart as holy in your heart and in your mind and in your soul.

Your Kingdom Come, Your Will Be Done

For Jesus, prayer is the main way to bring the Kingdom of God down to earth - not hard work or crazy teaching. And God’s answer to your prayers is never a charade. Our requests truly make a difference. We are partnering with the Holy Spirit to bend reality into the direction of God’s will.

Meditate on these 3 truths and the way you’ll go about prayer and especially the second part of the Lord’s Prayer will never be the same. And that’s why I would claim that prayer is a key discipline in your discipleship to Jesus.