DAILY BYTE
The request made by one of Jesus’ disciples in Luke 11:1, is a request that resonates within many many people: “Lord, teach us to pray.”
Who of us has no need for any help or guidance when it comes to the subject of prayer? Who of us can honestly claim that our prayer lives are exactly as they ought to be?
If you’re anything like me you’ll know that prayer really can be a struggle at times. You’ll know how easy it is to get sidetracked from your very best intentions to pray. You’ll know how quickly your mind wanders, and how sometimes the words and thoughts and images you do manage to formulate seem sterile and empty. If you’re anything like me you’ll know how little you in fact understand of this great mystery that is prayer.
Paul was spot on target when he wrote in Romans 8, “We do not know how to pray as we ought.”
It reminds me of the story of a little boy who was kneeling at the front of a church saying the alphabet out loud. The minister came in and asked him what he was doing.
“I’m praying,” said the little boy.
“But that’s not how you pray,” said the rather unimaginative, narrow-minded minister.
“I know,” said the boy, “but I don’t know what to say so I thought I’d just say the letters and let God arrange them into a prayer for me.”
Actually, that little boy was closer to the truth than he realized. When Paul writes in Romans 8, “We do not know how to pray as we ought,” he then goes on to say, “but the Spirit helps us in our weakness, interceding with deep sighs that words cannot express.”
That’s good news for us who feel like inarticulate children when it comes to prayer. But it further highlights our deep need for help in this area. “Lord, teach us to pray,” is a cry that comes from all of our hearts.
In responding to this request from one of his disciples, Jesus offered his famous teaching that has become known as The Lord’s Prayer. The words of this prayer are so familiar to us, we know them so well and can rattle them off so easily, literally without thinking, that we forget that this prayer is not some empty religious mantra, but in fact is Jesus’ core teaching on how to pray.
Imbedded within this prayer, simple as it is, are profound principles that can help us and guide us and mold us into a people of prayer.
Eugene Peterson writes, “The act of praying is no uncharted wilderness where we hack and forge our way. It is well travelled, with rich traditions and deep culture. Jesus’ words [in the Lord’s Prayer] are compass and map for finding our way to the deep interiors.”
If we are serious about growing and deepening in this dimension of our faith, then the Lord’s Prayer is essential teaching that we have to attend to with diligence.
At various intervals over the next couple of months the Barking Dog-Collar will focus on different portions of the compass and map that is the Lord’s Prayer, as we risk pushing out from the shallows to venture into the depths of the life of prayer that beckons us all as the people of God.
PRAY-AS-YOU-GO
Most gracious God, thank you for the guidance you offer us in the life of prayer. Thank you for the intercessions of your Spirit who helps us in our weakness, when we do not know how to pray as we ought. Thank you for the example and the teaching of Jesus that can lead us and guide us along this path. By your grace, help us to take to heart all that you offer, that we might become more and more the people of prayer that you have created us to be. Amen
SCRIPTURE READING
Jesus was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.”
Luke 11:1
