Imagine yourself offering up a prayer to God and hearing the following……
Thank you for calling My Father’s House. Please select one of the following options:
- Press 1 for requests
- Press 2 for Thanksgiving
- Press 3 for Complaints
- Press 4 for All Other Inquiries
If you would like to speak to:
- God, press 1
- For Jesus, press 2
- For the Holy Spirit, press 3
- If you would like to hear King David sing a Psalm while you are holding please press 4
- To find out if a loved one has been assigned to heaven, press 5, enter his or her social security number, then press the # key.
- (If you get a negative response, try area code 666).
For answers to nagging questions about dinosaurs, the age of the earth and where Noah’s Ark is, please wait until you arrive here.
Our computers show that you have already prayed once today. Please hang up and try again tomorrow.
This office is closed for the weekend to observe a religious holiday. Please pray again Monday after 9:30 am. If you need emergency assistance when this office is closed, contact your local Pastor.
The Priority of Prayer – v.1
I am so glad that prayer doesn’t work that way, aren’t you?
In fact, the Bible tells us that God desires our prayers and will not put us on hold. We have direct access to Him through Jesus Christ. The writer of Hebrews put it this way,
Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need.
Hebrews 4:16 NAS
The sad truth is though, that too many of us are not utilizing this resource and awesome privilege. It is not that we are put on hold, but that we are not even dialing the number for help.
Like the words to the well-known hymn, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus”…..
What a friend we have in Jesus
All our sins and grief’s to bear!
What a privilege to carry,
Everything to God in prayer.
O what peace we often forfeit,
O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer.
We miss out on God’s peace, grace and mercy, when we fail to make prayer a priority in our lives.
Is prayer a real priority to you?
You may be surprised to learn that while He was here on this earth, our Lord Jesus made prayer a priority in His life.
When we come to our passage that we will be looking at over the next few weeks (Luke 11:1-13), we find Jesus once again in prayer.
This is the sixth out of seventh instances that Luke records Jesus in prayer (obviously this is an important point to Luke given the small amount of information he covers in Jesus’ life).
Luke 3:21- following Baptism
Luke 6:12 – before choosing the 12 apostle
Luke 9:18 – before He asked the 12 for their confession of faith
Luke 9:28-29 – before His transfiguration
Later in Luke 22:41-44 – in the Garden before the crucifixionIn addition to praying before these important events, we also find Him taking to time to pray in everyday situations.
“So He himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed.” Luke 5:16 cf. Mt. 14:23; Mk. 1:35
The implication I think is clear. As Warren Wiersbe says,
“If Jesus Christ, the perfect Son of God, had to depend on prayer during ‘the days of His flesh’ (Heb. 5:7), then how much more do you and I need to pray! Effective prayer is the provision for every need and the solution for every problem.”
Luke 11:1 begins,
“And it came about that while He was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him,….Lord teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples.”
Jesus’ own prayer life did what a good prayer life will do, it whetted the spiritual appetite of others. His own intimate communion with God had created a hunger in the disciples to learn how to pray. If prayer was a priority to Him, then it should be a priority to them as well.
It is also evident from this passage that John the Baptist was a man of prayer as well. In fact it was so important that he taught his disciples how to pray……..“as John also taught his disciples.”
Someone has written, “We usually think of John the Baptist as a prophet and a martyr, and yet our Lord’s disciples remembered him as a man of prayer. John was a ‘miracle baby,’ filled with the Holy Spirit before he was born, and yet he had to pray. He was privileged to introduce the Messiah to Israel, and yet he had to pray. Jesus said that John was the greatest of the prophets (7:28), and yet John had to depend on prayer. If prayer was that vital to a man who had these many advantages, how much more important it ought to be to us who do not have these advantages.”
The point simply is that prayer ought to be a priority for every believer from the greatest to the least. From the leader to the layman, we ought always to pray.
Interestingly, it was common for religious leaders to teach their disciples how to pray. Being taught how to pray meant that the followers would develop a certain solidarity with their teacher and that their prayers would in turn express the teaching (theology) of the teacher.
Something that we don’t often realize is that our prayers reveal a great deal about what we believe. Our prayers inevitably reflect our theology! If you really listen to people pray you know this to be true. Jesus’ disciples wanted to pray in a way that was reflective of His teaching. They wanted to be able to pray as their Master prayed, so that they could express themselves to God in the right way.
What we have in v.2-4 is such a prayer. In those verses Jesus is teaching the disciples HOW to pray, giving them an example prayer.
This example prayer is a form of what is commonly known as “The Lord’s Prayer” because it is similar to the one found in Matthew 6:9-13. However, the context and the content reveal to us that this “prayer” and the one in Matthew are not really the Lord’s Prayer in the sense that He Himself prayed these exact words. Rather, it should more accurately be called “The Disciple’s Prayer” because it is a pattern given to the disciples to follow.
In fact, the following prayer could not be “the Lord’s Prayer” because Jesus Himself could not have prayed it (for example: He never had a need to ask for forgiveness). This is only a model prayer – no where do we find any command to recite this prayer by rote nor do we find in Scripture that it ever was used in that way.
In fact, the context of Matthew 6, where Jesus taught a similar prayer expressly prohibits the use of “vain or meaningless repetitions” in prayer (Mt. 6:7). It would be inconsistent for Jesus to tell the disciples to not use rote prayer and then give them a rote prayer to use.
In Matthew 6:9 Jesus says,
“Pray, then in this way” NASB;
“In this manner, therefore pray” NKJV
The phrase can be translated, “Along these lines, pray”
In Luke 11:1 the disciples ask Jesus to “teach them to pray,” not “teach us a prayer.”
Having said that let me add that there is not anything wrong with praying this prayer individually or corporately from time to time – so long as it is not made a ritual. After all, it is a part of the Word of God, and there is something to be commended about using the Word in our prayers. As long as we do it from a believing heart that is sincere and submitted, praying this prayer can be a meaningful part of worship.
John Bunyan is supposed to have said,
When we pray, rather let your heart be without words, than your words be without heart.”
Warren Wiersbe says,
“How easy it is to recite these words and not really mean them, but that can happen even when we sing and preach. [In that case] the fault lies with us and not with this prayer.”
So, the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples was not meant to be a formula prayer; rather it was meant to be a “how to” prayer. These words were not meant to be magical words prayed like an incantation over and over. Instead, he was simply giving the disciples a pattern to follow.
One thing I might briefly mention has to do with the differences between the prayer given by Jesus in Matthew 6 and the one given here in Luke 11. When you compare the two passages you will notice that Matthew’s prayer has two extra petitions than Luke’s. (Luke’s is missing: “Thy will be done” and “but deliver us from evil”)
Why is this? Some would say that Matthew’s version is older and perhaps the original prayer, and by the time Luke sat down to record his version it had become shortened. A more likely explanation is that these were two distinct prayers given by Jesus on two different occasions.
Consider the context of each:
- Matthew’s prayer is found in the Sermon on the Mount, which was taught to a very broad audience.
- Luke’s prayer was given by Jesus in response to specific request by the disciples after they saw Him praying.
What does this mean? It means that Jesus did not utter rote prayers every time He prayed, and when teaching certain subjects he did not always present them in the exact same way. He used a little variety in His teaching depending on the occasion and the audience.
Having laid the foundation for our text next week, we are going to be spending our remaining time together this morning talking about why prayer should be a priority in our lives.
I want to suggest to you that there are at least 5 reasons that prayer should be a priority to us.
- Reason #1 – Prayer is Commanded in Scripture
Note that this command (1 Thess. 5:17) is given in the midst of a series of imperatives.
“Therefore I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and dissension” I Timothy 2:8
“Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another” James 5:16
“…..with all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit” Ephesians 6:18
We are to pray because we are commanded to pray! Any believer who wants to grow and wants to be obedient will make prayer a priority in their life.
- Reason #2 – It is a Sin Not to Pray
God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you I Samuel 12:33
God expects us to commune with Him in prayer and He expects us to pray for one another (cf. James 5:16). To not do what God commands us to do is a sin (it is a sin of omission).
“Therefore, to one who knows, the right thing to do, and does not do it, to him it is sin.” James 4:17
When we neglect our prayer times we are neglecting our relationship with the Lord.
- Reason #3 – Prayer Gives Glory to God
The reason that we pray is so that God can be given a chance to answer our prayers – so that He can be glorified. If we don’t pray, if we don’t ask, then God cannot answer. And, if He cannot answer, then His power and love cannot be put on display. The primary reason for asking for something in prayer is that it affords God an opportunity to put His attributes on display especially His grace and goodness.
“Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation, or shifting shadow.” James 1:17
This is why Jesus said in Matthew 7:7-11,
“Ask and it shall be given to you; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you. For every one who asks receives; and he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks it shall be opened. Or what man is there among you, when his son shall ask for a loaf, will give him a stone? Or if he shall ask for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!”
Are you asking and not receiving? Check your reasons and motives,
1 What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? 2 You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. And you are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. James 4:1-3 NAS
Do you ask for His glory or your pleasure?
- Reason #4 – Prayer Allows us to Get in Harmony with the Purposes (will) of God
Like the little boy who prayed before bed,
“God bless Daddy” and then shouting he said, “And God I want a new bike!”
Startled, his mother said, “Son, you know God is not deaf.”
To which he replied, “Yea, I know, but Grandma is in the next room and she is hard of hearing!”
You understand that the boy’s prayer was not about God’s agenda, but it was about his own agenda.
John MacArthur points out,
“We don’t like to admit it, but a lot of our prayers are like that. Oftentimes, we pray with the idea that we are going to get God lined up with our purposes. We pray, ‘Lord, if you’ll just do this, or give me that, I’ll do thus and so.’ But the whole purpose of prayer is to line us up with God’s purposes.”
My friends, it is all about getting God’s will done on earth, rather than our will done in heaven. That’s why Jesus said to pray “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:9-10).
If our prayers are not concerned about God’s will, then they are not godly prayers! “True prayer is a communion with the heart of God.”
“And this is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, he hears us.” I John 5:14
What a promise!
Prayer is the vehicle that allows us to get in harmony with the divine purposes of God. By the way, this means we must seek to know His word, since the word is the primary way He reveals His will to us.
- Reason #5 – Prayer Results in Answers
“And whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son” John 14:13
“Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.” James 5:16
Is that a simple enough reason to pray?
1 comment:
Very uplifting. I can't imagine a day without a prayer time or ongoing prayer throughout the day. We are blessed to have our Lord with us 24/7 and to know that we can communicate with him at any moment in time and he is listening.
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