Teach Us to Pray

“Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples” (Luke 11:1b). The disciples voice an often heartfelt sentiment of Christians everywhere. Who among us really feels that we understand and practice prayer as God intended? Who among us would say, “I’m confident that my prayer life is more than adequate”? No mature believer would make this boast. Very few immature believers would make the boast. I suspect that even among unbelievers who are of a “spiritual” mind, contemplation of prayer also conveys a sense of their own inadequacy.¹ There is an impression in the minds of many, “I need something beyond myself.”

With that thought in mind, let’s think about the disciples’ question.

Things They Were Not Asking

Surely, the disciples were not asking, “Could you give us five steps for a better prayer life?” or, “How do you get power in prayer?” Our culture is full of advice and discussion about prayer. Take a moment to search this phrase on the Internet: “power of prayer.” You will find many Christian links, some better than others. Mixed in the list as well are Mormons, Hindus, yoga masters, New Agers, and so on, all discussing the power of prayer. It seems very trendy to feel “in touch” with spiritual power. Prayer is the key. So they say.

The pagans of the first century likewise filled their lives with prayers. Their temples were full of gods to whom they prayed, from whom they sought favorable omens, with whom they desired spiritual connection and power. There is a superstitious sense that implies that if you say your prayers just right, you, too, can tap into divine power. How much of modern Christian advice about prayer resembles the mysticism of the ancients? Or the mysticism of the not-so-ancient, the trendy New Agers and Eastern religion enthusiasts of our day?

No, I don’t think the disciples were pursuing a mystic connection with God through prayer.

Moreover, it is also sure that the disciples were not asking, “What do you say when you pray?” or, “How do you pray?” These were men steeped in the Old Testament, taught the Bible from an early age. Not only had they had formal training in the Torah and the customs of the rabbis, but constantly from birth up in their homes, they were “rubbing shoulders” with the Scripture. Devout Jews adorned their homes with Scriptures, the many feasts and ceremonies of Judaism included recitation of Scripture, and psalm-singing Levites accompanied temple worship. Much of the Old Testament would be committed to memory. Boys in the synagogue schools memorized vast quantities of Scripture.

Their Scriptures, the Old Testament, is, among many other things, a comprehensive book of prayers. From the very beginning, we read of the patriarchs praying, the troubled children of Israel praying (finally) in their distress during the days of the judges, and of course the Psalms record many of David’s prayers (and those of others as well). The “Treasury of David” instructs the reader amply about what and how to pray. It is full of worship, adoration, meditation, petition, supplication, and even the desperation of the troubled soul.

Given this background, it cannot be that the disciples knew not what to pray or how to pray.

Some commentaries suggest they were asking for a prayer of identification, a prayer that marked them specifically as disciples of Jesus. This notion seems to stem from the phrase, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.” Presumably, John likewise gave his disciples distinctive prayers that identified them as followers of John. Whether this was their request or not, early Christians used the Lord’s Prayer like this. “In practice an individual would first pray this prayer immediately after baptism and their first participation in the Lord’s Supper.”²

John Gill argues against this idea, noting the difference in wording between the prayers as found here in Luke and the one offered in Matthew. He says, “That it was not intended as a prescribed set form, in so many words, is clear; since then it would not have been varied, as it is by the two evangelists, by whom it is recorded; for though they both agree in the main, as to the sense, yet not in the express words.”³ He also argues that Jesus never intended the prayer to be a “set prayer” since the apostles never record using it as such throughout their long ministries.

Thus again it seems we have not yet hit on it. The disciples weren’t looking for a special prayer as a “badge” of their Rabbi.

What Then? What Were the Disciples Asking?

Some key details in this incident (and in the parallel passage in Matthew) might help us answer the question. First, the question arose as the disciples observe Jesus Himself at prayer (Luke 11:1). We will come back to this, but the Lord’s example must have impressed the disciples. As in all things Jesus did, He prayed in a way no one else ever prayed.

Second, the whole of Luke 11 is a lengthy instruction on prayer; the Lord’s rehearsal of the Lord’s Prayer is introductory and incomplete. It is almost as if the Lord is using verbal shorthand to remind them of this prayer given earlier in His ministry (and perhaps more than once, in His itinerate preaching). He reminds them of the model prayer and then moves to the parable of the friend arriving at midnight, prompting the host to implore bread of his neighbor incessantly, until the neighbor gets up and helps him. The Lord continues on this theme, stressing importunity and boldness in prayer.

Third, in the passage where we have the most complete version of the prayer (Matt. 6:9–13, part of the Sermon on the Mount), the Lord uses these words, “After this manner therefore pray…” The Lord intends the prayer as a model, not a prescription. Luke supports this notion in Luke 11:2, “When ye pray” — commentator after commentator notes that this is an indefinite statement: “Whenever you pray…” The instructions are general guidelines for all occasions of prayer.

The disciples want to pray as Jesus prays. He reminds them of the pattern and then proceeds with instructions on importunity and boldness. “And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you” (Luke 11:9). Does this suggest something that is different about the Lord’s act of prayer and our own?

The model prayer begins, “Our Father.” When Jesus prayed, He entered the presence of God and spoke as if conversing with a friend. When Jesus closed out His ministry, He told His disciples that He no longer called them servants (doulos, slaves), but friends (John 15:15). The apostle Paul tells us that one benefit of salvation is access to the presence of God by faith (Rom. 5:2; Eph. 2:18). In Ephesians 3:12, our access is with “boldness and … confidence.”

When the disciples were “but disciples,” no doubt they lacked confidence in prayer. No doubt as they observed the Lord at prayer, He intimidated them by His grace, confidence, and power. No doubt they wished for the same kind of relationship with the Father that they saw the Son display (in his humanity).

Charles Hodge, in his Systematic Theology, offers seven requirements for “acceptable prayer.” They are sincerity, reverence, humility, importunity, submission, faith, and the name (authority) of Christ.⁴ These requirements mark boldness and confidence to speak to our Creator as sons. Through church history, much abuse of all Christian practices served to keep individuals separated from God their Father. One blessing of the Reformation is a recovery of personal, earnest prayer. May we not let it escape us again. “Prayer is the breath of a regenerate soul; as soon as a child is born into the world it cries, as soon as a soul is born again it prays.”⁵

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Don Johnson is the pastor of Grace Baptist Church of Victoria in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

(Originally published in FrontLine • July/August 2018. Click here to subscribe to the magazine.)

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Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash

1. Note: I don’t at all suggest that unbelievers are right in any of their thoughts concerning prayer. I am noting that unbelievers may express spiritual longings they don’t really understand and call it prayer. This certainly is not prayer to the true God of heaven. [↩]
2. Robert H. Stein, Luke, The New American Commentary, vol. 24 (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1992), 324. [↩]
3. John Gill, A Complete Body of Doctrinal and Practical Divinity: Or A System of Evangelical Truths, Deduced from the Sacred Scriptures, New Edition, vol. 2 (Tegg & Company, 1839), 694. [↩]
4. Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, vol. 3 (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997), 701–5. [↩]
5. Gill, Practical Divinity, 2:682. [↩]