Learning To Pray

He was praying in a certain place, and when He finished one of His disciples said to Him, "Lord teach us to pray. . . Luke 11:1ff

How on Earth does one learn to pray? If we grew up in a family where our parents prayed, I suppose we learned it by watching them. Perhaps it was the familiar practice in the Christian home of “returning thanks” before meals. Maybe it was that our folks came into our room, or to our bedside, at night and helped us kneel there for a quick recitation of “Now I lay me down to sleep” (a wonderful prayer, by the way). We may have been fortunate enough to have parents or grandparents who prayed regularly in our presence or where we would have seen them rather or not by design.

The closest followers of Jesus asked Him to teach them to pray. See Luke 11:1
I am confident that they had watched Him, heard Him, pray. They were intrigued by the words but more so by the result. Whatever they thought was going on, they wanted some of that consistency, that fervency, that depth of intimacy they observed.

Some statistical information indicates that the average Pastor (minister) spends an average of about ten (10) minutes in prayer each day. I am sure most of us are willing to believe that even they spend more time in prayer than the “average” joe. And that is a scary proposition in my book. Can you even imagine a “few hours” in prayer? How about “all night” in prayer? Forty days in prayer? Surely there had to be some singing and preaching and a few announcements in there somewhere.

A wise man told me this week that if people are going to learn how to pray, they are going to need an example. We’re going to need some genuine intercessors that will mentor others in the “art” of prayer. Long hours, long months, maybe even years will elapse before a majority of folks attending services in our Churches on a regular basis will know how to really pray with depth, with the required fervency to be effective, and with the intimacy which comes with extended hours of communication with the Father.

It is one of those long journeys we embark on with great enthusiasm, only to find ourselves growing less interested as time go by. So, generation-by-generation, we grow weaker and less able to accomplish our calling. We become less familiar with the discipline, more ignorant of the task, and poorly acquainted with the practice.

Is that anyway to run a life?