“Lord, teach us how to pray” (Luke 11:1).
His disciples had witnessed that the power of God was rooted in this time that Jesus spent in prayer. They had seen Him take time away, to Himself to pray. He had fasted and spent time with God, and was changed because of it. Jesus is our example, and He perfectly displays to us the power and importance of prayer.
While prayer is something that we can do, it is also a gift that we have been given. Jesus recognized this gift and often made space in His life for prayer. I have no understanding of what the communication between Jesus and God would have been like, but I do know that it was important to Jesus to spend time with the Father in prayer. Because of the time they spent together, Jesus knew His Father’s heart and constantly had compassion on His people.
How do we implement this kind of prayer in our daily lives? Obviously we face schedules that differ from the ministry schedule of Jesus. Our needs are much different and we usually struggle to find time to pray.
We are called to move beyond. Move beyond what everyone else is doing… move beyond the chains that are holding us back from past struggles and hurts, move beyond what is normal in the world that we live in. Simply put, we cannot live a “normal” life and also love the Father and honor Jesus the way that we should. Our lives have to be set apart (Romans 12:2). God has called us to make a sacrifice that is difficult to comprehend. The sacrifice isn’t for our very lives, like Jesus’ sacrifice.
But it is for our lives in a difference sense. When we lay down our own lives and offer it as a living sacrifice, Holy and pleasing to God (Romans 12:1), we give up living a life that looks like everyone else’s. The sacrifice is that we choose to give our time, our devotion, our heart, and our motivations to God. The first step in this is simply prayer.
Prayer is an incredible opportunity that we have to communicate with God. All relationships thrive with open communication. It is easy to think, “God knows what I am thinking, why should I tell Him?”… But all relationships require communication to stay healthy, and to stay connected. Prayer is a receptive attitude… waiting on God. It is an openness to hear from God. If we don’t spend time communicating with, and listening to God, how can we stay connected to Him? The very goal, and ultimate desire of our lives is to know God and be known by God. It is a gift that we can serve Him, but it’s even more important that we KNOW Him.
Prayer is moving beyond focusing on ourselves to focusing on who God is and what He wants for us and from us.
Prayer is proof that we believe that God is real, that we believe He is here, and He is working. This proof isn’t for others to know what we believe, but to reveal to ourselves where we stand in our relationship with God.
1 Thess. 5:17 says to pray continuously. This isn’t a command, that we should feel guilty when we fail to do us, because then we would all carry around that shame. However, it is an invitation and a gift to stay connected with God in all things. He cares for you.
