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Day 130

Luke 11: 1-13 "IF YOU HAD A SPECIAL REQUEST..."

Day 130 – Luke 11

Text: Luke 11: 1-13

IF YOU HAD A SPECIAL REQUEST…

If you had been one of the people who made up the “Multitude”, and if you were allowed one special request – what would you ask for? Would you have asked to see “one more miracle”?

If you had been one of the people who made it to the ranks of the Disciples, and you do have special access to the Master – what would you ask for? Would you have asked for more knowledge or more power?

“LORD, TEACH US TO PRAY…” Luke 11:1

Do you think that you would have asked the Lord Jesus to teach you how to pray as the Disciples did? What really gripped the Disciples’ heart that they ask their Master to teach them how to pray?

Luke intimates to us that one of the reasons that caused them to cry out to the Lord Jesus to teach them to pray was their observation of the way Jesus spent time in prayer. They noticed that their Master would be spending time, “praying in a certain place…” (Luke 11:1).

They had also heard that John the Baptiser was a man who spent long periods in the wilderness, praying to the Lord! How could anyone spend so much time in prayer? How could anyone commune with God in prayer so deeply?

Perhaps their own prayer life was lacking. Somehow, they felt that they were just not very prayerful people. That’s entirely possible. We need only to check our own prayer-life to understand how the Disciples must have felt.

The Lord Jesus must have impacted His Disciples in many different ways! One of them was to impress them with a deep need, and an even deeper desire to learn how to pray significantly!

WHAT EXACTLY DID THE DISCIPLES WANT TO LEARN ABOUT PRAYER?

Some Christians believe that the Prayer taught by the Lord Jesus Christ, often called, “The Lord’s Prayer” should be recited in the Church regularly! Others do not believe that this prayer was meant to be used as a Recitation! How do we resolve this conflict of opinion?

We can perhaps resolve this knotty problem by asking ourselves the following questions:-

1. Did they ask for a “formula prayer” to be uttered every day?

2. Was it a special formula prayer that the Lord Jesus used as He communed with His Father every day?

3. Does the context suggest that the Lord Jesus taught His Disciples how to recite “The Lord’s Prayer”?

4. Does any other passage in the entire New Testament demonstrate that the early New Testament Church utilized “The Lord’s Prayer” in liturgical worship?

We could add to this list of questions. However, if we were to be honest in our attempts to answer the questions, the answer would all be in the negative!

THE PRAYER LIFE OF THE LORD JESUS

The Lord Jesus must have told His Disciples that He had once spent 40 days and nights in the wilderness in prayer and fasting (Luke 4:1-13). Did He offer only ONE single prayer to His Father? Did He recite just ONE prayer all that time? That is unimaginable!

The Disciples would observe that the Lord Jesus would rise up early in the morning, and sometimes would spend the whole night in prayer! Would He have just recited one prayer to His Father in Heaven every time He prayed? The answer is obvious! Of course not! It is absolutely unthinkable that the Lord Jesus would merely “say prayers” to His own beloved Father! Recitation of prayer was NOT the way the Lord Jesus communed with His Father!

There were a number of recorded prayers in the Gospels. In none of them was there a hint that He recited prayers to His Father.

Instead, the Gospels record that Jesus offered spontaneous prayers to His Father, and all those prayers were vastly different. Each prayer was different, depending on the context, and the needs at hand.

The long prayer that John recorded in John 17, sometimes dubbed “The High Priestly Prayer of Christ” would suggest that the prayer life of the Lord Jesus was very rich! He did not “recite prayers”. Thus it would be safe and fair to say that He did not teach His Disciples to merely recite prayers!

PRINCIPLES OF PRAYER

The Disciples of the Lord Jesus were sincerely interested in deepening their prayer-life! If they had been truly good Disciples, they would have desired to learn how to pray as their Master did! How could anyone spend such long periods of time in prayer as Jesus did?

What then did the Lord Jesus seek to impart to His Disciples as He taught them “The Lord’s Prayer”? If it is not recitation, nor mere repetition, what did the Lord Jesus teach His Disciples?

The answer would be that the Lord Jesus taught His Disciples significant “principles of prayer”. Yes, there is deep theology undergirding the practice of prayer! The Lord Jesus had taught His Disciples very deep and practical theology! Would it not be in keeping with His teachings if the Master also taught His Disciples that they must first master deep principles of prayer, before they can hope to enter into a deeper prayer life?

Let us be deeply challenged to study “The Lord’s Prayer” with the view of seeking to understand “the theology of prayer” of the Teacher. These were Disciples, and surely it would be consistent to learn that there is deep theology behind prayer! They were Disciples who must become more prayerful people. Learning how to recite the Lord’s Prayer would not go very far in making them very prayerful!

Are we desirous of deepening our prayer life? Are we prepared to do some deep thinking, if that would help us improve our prayer life?

Webmaster’s Note :

If you are seeking a deeper level of understanding of prayer, please check out Pastor Charlie Tan’s excellent weekly articles on The Theology of Prayer , which includes a more indepth study of The Lord’s Prayer and how it applies to our prayer-life.