Posted September 16, 2024

I recently attended a Prayer Breakfast, where those attending joined in prayers for the community, the youth, our leaders, and world issues. The breakfast speaker affirmed that Prayer is the Lifeline to Heaven. She talked about access, and that because of our Savior and His death for our sake, there is no longer a division separating a Holy God from sinful man. We now have access to a personal “relationship” with God, through accepting the once-and-for-all sacrifice of Jesus who died in our place. We can choose to go to a loving God without fear, or choose to live life with no power, going through the motions of being “religious”.  

During His ministry on earth, Jesus’ followers, the 12 disciples, watched everything He did. They were witnesses that Jesus was a man of prayer, who spent a lot of time praying. They saw His prayer life firsthand. Jesus told them, “I do everything that my Father tells me to do” (John 14:31). An article found at crossway.org points out, “The Father taught Jesus to depend upon Him, especially in prayer.” (www.crossway.org/articles/what-did-jesus-teach-about-prayer/).  

       The disciples watched Jesus, and they wanted to be more like Jesus. We read in Luke 11:1, as Jesus was praying one day, a disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us how to pray”. Should we take this to mean these Jewish followers of Jesus were unfamiliar with prayer? 

Of course, there are Old Testament examples of prophets who prayed for the people – Moses, Esther – and those who prayed for themselves – Hannah, Hezekiah, Jabez. We learn from the article at crossway.org how Jewish people typically referred to God in prayer as Yahweh, or Jehovah the Lord, or God of Father Abraham. Any other approach was unacceptable and disrespectful, and Jesus’s very life was threatened because He called God His own Father (John 5:18). The disciples observed Christ’s relationship with God and His personal time with God. And they heard Jesus call God “Father”, which the article points out as more evidence of a “radical” Jesus and the “radical” nature of His ministry. As we see here, even those disciples who walked closely with Jesus during His earthly ministry asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. They knew how important prayer was to Jesus, and they wanted the same closeness communicating with God for themselves.  

In Matthew Chapter 6, we see how Jesus responds to His disciple’s request. He begins by telling them what Not to do. Verse 5 says, “do not pray to be seen, or to be heard, as the pagans do, who think their prayers are answered by repeating their words again and again” (www.bibleref.com/Matthew/6). As Jesus goes on with this teaching, He refers to God as “your Father” twice (verses. 6,8). What we study as The Lord’s Prayer, the Model Prayer, is a simple conversation with God. It begins in verse 9, where Jesus says “In this manner, therefore pray: Our Father, who is in heaven....” The disciples hear this teaching and witness this personal interaction between Jesus and God. Jesus gave them an intimate model prayer, still available to those who come to be His followers today. A personal relationship with God our Father is the foundation for everything we do as followers of Jesus.

The Lord Jesus has made us acceptable to our Holy God. He has made prayer intimate and personal, teaching us and showing us there is no condemnation in coming before God our Father just as we are, in “our” comfort zone. Make your relationship with God intimate and personal. I recommend that you take a look at blog entry “Oh Give Thanks!” (November 2023) and take heart knowing when you pray, you don’t have to imitate what others say or do. It’s personal, and Heaven’s ear is open and waiting to hear from you.