LORD, TEACH US TO PRAY!

Dear Beloved, LORD, TEACH US TO PRAY! "One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, 'Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples'" (Luke 11:1 NIV). 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 and asked Him to teach them (that is, the disciples) how to pray. This indicates that they had been seeing Him pray, 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 overemphasized. It is proper for us to meditate beforehand on what we are to ask of God, and to arrange our thoughts, so that we may not come thoughtlessly into His presence. As Christians, we are on the war front against the devil and his host. The Bible clearly states 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. We can use the efficacy of prayer against these satanic powers. 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. The true method of praying can be learned only by our being properly taught. Indeed, we cannot pray acceptably unless God takes 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. In His service, Bayo Afolaranmi (Pastor). Prayer Point: Pray that the Lord will teach you the right way to pray to Him.