Lord, Teach Us to Pray

The Disciples spoke to Jesus

In speaking to Jesus concerning prayer they admitted that they knew not what to say. Learning to prayer seems hard for us, as Christians because if we are Christians we must know how to pray, right? Can the heart pray without words from the mouth? Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “For then we confuse wishes, hopes, sighs, laments, rejoicings-all of which the heart can do by itself-with prayer.”

Jesus begins to teach in Matthew 6 concerning prayer, Matthew 6:5 (NRSV)

Concerning Prayer

(Lk 11:2–4)

5 “And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. I want you to recognize that this is not a positive statement but something we should not do. Jesus is telling us that the religious figures that you are viewing are doing prayer wrong.

In our humanness, Dietrich Bonhoeffer says, “If the heart does not overflow and begin to pray by itself, we say, it will never “learn” to pray.”(p.9 Psalms, The Prayer Book of the Bible). Then Jesus shifts to how the Gentiles pray, which is another negative rather than a positive. Matthew 6:7 (NRSV)

7 “When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. So, in this instance, the Gentile is basically rambling on about their many needs, and they think that the many words that are lifted up will allow them to be heard. Prayer is effective not because we offer them up or because our hearts are full, but because our Father knows what we need before we ask. Matthew 6:8 (NRSV)

8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. If that is the case, and we should all agree that it is the case because it was Jesus who said it, then why do some prayers seem to be unanswered? I believe the answer we are looking for is in verse 10 of this passage. Matthew 6:10 (NRSV)

10 Your kingdom come.

Your will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven. Jesus directs us to focus not on our desires alone but on the will of the Father. In the book Psalms, A Prayer Book of the Bible we read that the child learns how to speak because the father first speaks to the child. By repeating the Father’s own words we begin to pray to Him, just as the child first learns to speak by mimicking the father’s own words.

The words of the Lord’s Prayer teach us how to pray because where we locate Jesus is in the very Word of God. When we pray scripture we are communicating God’s very words to him. He already knows what we need, and I believe the scriptures tell us that He wants us to have all that we need. As Matthew 6:26 tells us, in Jesus’ own words, Matthew 6:26 (NRSV)

26 Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? The will of the Father is really about us. He tells us in the scriptures that we must forgive others if we want to be forgiven. Matthew 6:14–15 (NRSV)

14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; 15 but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.