LORD, TEACH US TO PRAY!

Dearly Beloved, LORD, TEACH US TO PRAY! “Now it came to pass, as [Jesus Christ] was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples’” (Luke 11:1 NKJV). Our Lord Jesus Christ while on earth knew the importance of prayer, and He did not play with it. He started His earthly ministry with prayer and ended it with prayer. One of the instances of His prayer life is the verse quoted above. As He finished His prayer, one of His disciples came to Him asked Him to teach them (i.e. the disciples) how to pray. This indicates that they had been seeing Him praying, and probably they had partaken in His time of prayer, but they did not know how to pray. The Bible does not disclose the identity of this particular disciple. However, one of them asked, and it led to the teaching of what we know today as "The Lord's Prayer." The prayer life of a Christian cannot be over-emphasized. It is proper for us to meditate beforehand what we are to ask of God, and to arrange our thoughts, that we may not come thoughtlessly into His presence. As Christians, we are in the war front against the devil and his host. The Bible clearly states this that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the satanic powers (Ephesians 6:12), and that though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does (2 Corinthians 10:3-4). We can use the efficacy of prayer against these satanic powers. But, how can we use this power effectively? Promises of God abound in the Bible that we should ask Him anything in prayer and He will do it for us. How can we rightly utilize these promises in prayer? We have to ask God to teach us how to pray. There are various ways of prayer. Only God can teach us the proper method of praying if we are ready to learn. Indeed, we cannot pray acceptably at all unless God take us through the course of prayer. Somebody has suggested the acronym "ACTS" to describe the ways of prayer. The acronym stands for Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication. While praying, what method should we use? We need to ask God to teach us. Lord, teach us to pray! In His service, Bayo Afolaranmi (Pastor). Prayer Point: Pray that the Lord will teach you how to correctly pray unto Him so that your prayers will be acceptable to Him.