“Will somebody please teach us how to Pray? Teach us ways we can build up our Prayer Lives?” Luke 11:1-13

Luke 11:1-13 English Standard Version

The Lord’s Prayer

11 Now Jesus^[a] was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” ² And he said to them, “When you pray, say:

“Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
³ Give us each day our daily bread,^[b]
4 and forgive us our sins,
    for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And lead us not into temptation.”

⁵ And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, ⁶ for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; ⁷ and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything’? ⁸ I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence^[c] he will rise and give him whatever he needs. ⁹ And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. ¹⁰ For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. ¹¹ What father among you, if his son asks for^[d] a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; ¹² or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? ¹³ If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

Prayer is an essential part of the life of a disciple of Jesus Christ.

1. When we pray we are speaking to our father God.

2. When we pray, we begin by honoring the greatness of God.

3. When we pray, we need to be in harmony with the priorities and plans of God.

4. When we pray, we express our dependence on God.

5. When we pray we ought to confess our sins before God.

6. When we pray we need to ask for spiritual protection.

7. When we pray, we are invited to come boldly to the throne of God.

Hebrews 4:16 Amplified Bible

¹⁶ Therefore let us [with privilege] approach the throne of grace [that is, the throne of God’s gracious favor] with confidence and without fear, so that we may receive mercy [for our failures] and find [His amazing] grace to help in time of need [an appropriate blessing, coming just at the right moment].

8. When we pray we must trust the goodness of God.

Charles Spurgeon once talked about a pastor having two legs:

a preaching/study leg and a prayer leg.

He said that “preachers needed to be balanced or else they’d walk funny. And I suppose you could also say that if one of those legs is incredibly short, you will end up spinning in circles.”

With a gimpy left hip, my prayer leg is that much shorter than my preaching leg.

In other words, I confess I probably shouldn’t be the one writing this article.

Now that most of you readers have probably left, for those of you readers remaining, I pray we can forgive each other, we be honest with each other?

There is something about the concept of prayer that seems a little, I don’t know…boring? How many sermons have you heard, devotions have you read?

That doesn’t sound right to say.

Uncomfortable? Unappealing?

None of these words are helping my case in the slightest.

We know that we ought to be people of prayer.

We know that God is the one who makes things happen, that we’re dependent upon Him, and that prayer is vital part of our relationship. But we still struggle.

In order to help with this, a whole bunch of very well-meaning, well educated well intentioned wise intelligent people have attempted to give us a nice simple definition of prayer:

“as we’re talking to our earthly fathers we’re talking to our Heavenly Father.”

Maybe that’s part of our problem.

Let’s think about this for a second.

Let’s say the wife and kids are out of town for the weekend and I want to invite a friend over.

How do I do it?

If I’m a guy, I’m probably not going to say, “Hey bro, want to come over so we can watch some football, have pizza, and maybe talk together afterwards too?”

Even if both of us are hungry for food, companionship and having a good talk, the reality is he’ll likely tell me he has to “do some work around the house” and won’t be able to come over. But what if I say, “Hey, the house is empty and I am buying, I am alone, want to come over and watch the game with me anyway”?

Chances are He’s all in this time.

We’ll probably have some conversation in-between timeouts – or if it’s an inferior sport we can quietly converse during a commercial. The point, though, is that us dudes don’t tend to schedule “guy talk time” on their “calendars.”

And I think that is why “prayer time” is starting from a deficit for many of us.

An idea occurred to me that if maybe we reframe our thinking on this a little. Compare it to say, more to “7 ways to get the most out of a ball game” and less on “7 ways to muster up the courage to attend our unscheduled ‘talk time.’”  

I don’t want to cast my weighted fishing net too far, too fast here.

Some of us guys aren’t nearly as threatened as we are apt to believe by the idea of talking and they’re probably in a better place with this whole prayer thing.

They might be better ones more qualified to write this devotional article. But for the time being you have only got me. So presented here are seven things that I have found which have help me with my prayer time. I pray they may help you.

I’ll try to make each of them mercifully short.

1. Set a Time and Place

This is where we can learn something from sports.

If I say, “our favorite teams are playing against each other today,” you are immediately going to ask, “What time?”

An athletic contest has a specific time and place for the event.

Unless it’s a weather delay, and then you spend a couple hours watching old episodes of Bonanza or Gunsmoke while you wait for the tarps to come off.

Attendance would almost certainly plummet if they said,

“The game will start at some point today, maybe, be sure to show up at the ballpark sometime, whenever you get around to it, the game might be going on, it might not be going on. But you know, whatever. that is the chance you take when you buy in”

Instead, you set a specific time and place when you’re committed to something.

It means that it’s going to happen.

Prayer should be the same way.

If we say, “I’m going to devote some time to prayer every morning at 7 AM” we will get into a disciplined practiced habit of keeping that appointment — even though we might have a brief encounter with that occasional “rain delay.”

2. Use a Prayer Journal

I probably lost some of you here.

I’ve had people tell me, “we don’t keep journals.” It is too out of fashion.

I’m a writer so it’s a little less weird for me, but I hear you.

I’ll pretend for a second that I’m weirded out by keeping a journal, just for your sake. I’ll try to bring out that super macho part of me where I have a ‘pray’ shop and will go in there and ‘saw’ things (that is true of me, minus the macho part).

In my ‘pray’ shop I do have a few things written down in various places. In fact, I tend to keep a white board in there so I can write down pressing issues, think through writing plans, and make a list of topics I don’t actually have the next level of expertise to try to write about while I drive down to the grocery store.

Why do I do this? Because I am writing down things that are important.

Some of them I might even save because I pray I’ll keep coming back to it.

Consider keeping something like this.

You don’t have to call it a journal.

Call it something that makes you feel more manly if that’s your schtick.

Keep a captain’s log of all the important things you are thinking about and praying about.

3. Have a prayer list

I’ve found this to be helpful in keeping me focused.

I know another pastor of a pretty large church that has a high stack of prayer requests that he goes through daily. He prays maybe 10-20 seconds for each one, just pausing for a moment, thinks about the person, entrusts them to God.

It’s a beautiful thing because I’ve been on the receiving end of this prayer list ministry. He’d text me at times and say, “Just prayed for you today.” That’s one of the benefits of keeping a prayer list — it keeps us focused and allows us to do things like tell other people we’ve prayed for them. That can encourage others.

You can use the notes feature on your phone or keep a little notebook with you.

I need to do a much better job of this one as well. I’m far too confident in my own ability to remember things. I used to be much better at this when my life was a bit simpler, less worried about my surgically repaired heart. But now I have “a million” thoughts running through my head. I just forget things.

4. Pray the Psalms or Other Scripture

Discipline yourself to download a Bible App and spend time with it. You will find a God sized treasure trove of inspiration within that book of Psalms-Psalm 23.

Psalms are God’s own book of worship … Dig In …

5. Pray with Others

6. Use Prayer Apps or Tools

7. Learn Breath Prayers

Okay, this is where you’re going to think I’m a little crazy. And if you’re one of those super theological nerds (like myself) you might be a little uncomfortable thinking this sounds like New Age mumbo jumbo instead of scriptural practice.

I’ll admit that, in my opinion, some people take this a bit far and will go in some weird directions.

A breath prayer, though, is really just a prayer that can be said in a single breath.

Breath prayers are exactly what they sound like: prayers that can be said in a single breath. To practice this discipline — which has been shared by Christians for many ages — you simply take in a deep, calming breath and, while exhaling, pray quietly or aloud a simple phrase meant to reorient you to God’s presence, his kingdom, and his good will for you. It’s a practice that brings the whole person — heart, mind, and body — back to an awareness of God’s presence.

I think it’s a way for us to “pray continually.”

Remember earlier when I said I was awful at praying?

Well, the reality is that I’m probably being too hard on myself. I do these breath prayers many times throughout the day. I’ll give you an example.

I’m a pastor. This means that sometimes I have difficult hospital visits. Before entering almost every room I will pause, take in a big breath, and simply pray something like, “God, Help me be your presence to this hurting person.”

Sometimes my breath prayer is as simple as, “Lord Jesus, keep my mouth shut and don’t let me say something stupid.”

Or when people are being kids and I’m just wanting a month full of Sabbath rest, “Help me be more like Jesus for them for what they need is a boxing ring.”

You get the picture. This has you praying throughout the day.

Pick a few phrases that you can start with and practice these little breath prayers throughout your day.

Lord, I pray that ….

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Psalm 17 Complete Jewish Bible

17 ⁽⁰⁾ A prayer of David:

⁽¹⁾ Hear a just cause, Adonai, heed my cry;
listen to my prayer from honest lips.
² Let my vindication come from you,
let your eyes see what is right.

³ You probed my heart,
you visited me at night,
and you assayed me without finding evil thoughts
that should not pass my lips.
⁴ As for what others do, by words from your lips
I have kept myself from the ways of the violent;
⁵ my steps hold steadily to your paths,
my feet do not slip.

⁶ Now I call on you, God, for you will answer me.
Turn your ear to me, hear my words.
⁷ Show how wonderful is your grace,
savior of those who seek at your right hand
refuge from their foes.
⁸ Protect me like the pupil of your eye,
hide me in the shadow of your wings
⁹ from the wicked, who are assailing me,
from my deadly enemies, who are all around me.
¹⁰ They close their hearts to compassion;
they speak arrogantly with their mouths;
¹¹ they track me down, they surround me;
they watch for a chance to bring me to the ground.
¹² They are like lions eager to tear the prey,
like young lions crouching in ambush.

¹³ Arise, Adonai, confront them! Bring them down!
With your sword deliver me from the wicked,
¹⁴ with your hand, Adonai, from human beings,
from people whose portion in life is this world.
You fill their stomachs with your treasure,
their children will be satisfied too
and will leave their wealth to their little ones.

¹⁵ But my prayer, in righteousness, is to see your face;
on waking, may I be satisfied with a vision of you.

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

https://translate.google.com/