Praying with Jesus
We kicked off our 3 week series entitled "learning to pray" by sitting at the feet of Jesus and watching his prayer life and listening to his teaching (from Luke's Gospel, especially 11.1-13) and this is what we learnt...
Firstly, prayer has to be learnt (vs1). We should never assume that we can suddenly “just pray” and we shouldn’t feel embarrassed if we can’t pray. But we should be willing to learn to pray. However, if we struggle to pray we should not feel guilty (that is from the devil and not God). Jesus’ 12 didn’t know how to pray and then they couldn’t stay awake in Gethsemane to pray, but they were still Jesus’ followers and God still used them dramatically. Don’t be burdened down with guilt thinking “I am a bad Christian…I can’t pray…” but come to God eagerly and say “teach me to pray”
So what did we learn?
(1) The motivation for prayer is the privilege of being with your father in heaven (vs1). Jesus reiterated this in his teaching on the sermon on the mount (Matthew 6.5-9) as well as his own life (2.49, 4.42, 5.15-16, 6.12, 9.18….22.39). In a certain place for a certain time, to close the door and be alone with your father and marvel that you can even call him father since he is the “Holy One of Israel.” To remember that he is “good but he is not safe” and to let our boldness and intimacy be matched by our awe, wonder and reverence. He is our “Abba Father” (Romans 8.15). But he is also “Righteous Father” (John 17.25) with.
(2) The Importance of prayer is due to our dependence on God (we need his stabilising and empowering presence). We saw this demonstrated in two ways in Jesus’ life. Firstly, as his public ministry increased, his private devotion increased. Why? Because he wanted to do the will of the father and not be buffeted around by people’s-expectations (Luke 4.42-43) Secondly, before times of great testing or great decisions his private devotion increased. Before choosing the 12 in Luke 6 he spends a whole night in prayer and before the cross in Luke 22 he goes to Gethsemane with his disciples to pray. He needed to hear his father’s voice, gain his perspective, receive his direction and be filled with his power. Ultimately he wanted to be able to say “not my will but yours.” And he was able to go to be with his father in the crises because he had learnt the discipline previously, so when the trials hit he could draw strength from being with his father and not be toppled. Jesus was dependant on God and taught us to pray “give us today our daily bread.”
(3) The means of prayer is to wrestle with God (vs5-13). Jesus tells two parables which teach us to pray, to be persistent and to be bold. To keep going (Luke 11 + Luke 18). Persistence shows real hunger and desire. Persistence shows we are serious. And it is through persistence that God teaches and moulds us. It is a mystery as to why he delays and why we need to be persistent since he is a father who longs to give us good gifts but it seems that all the great saints have wrestled with God - Abraham, Jacob, Job, Jesus, Epaphras…Terry Virgo. Here are two great PT Forsyth quotes which help us understand prayer as wrestling
God loves a holy war….cast yourself into his arms, not to be caressed but to wrestle with him….he may be too many for you, and lift you from your feet. But it will be to lift you from earth, and set you in the heavenly places which are theirs who fight the good fight and lay hold of God as their eternal life”
Lose the persistence of prayer … lose the real conflict of will and will, lose the habit of wrestling and the hope of prevailing with God, make it mere walking with God in friendly talk; and precious as that is, yet you tend to lose the reality of prayer at last.”
Discussion Questions
(1) Look up the references above from Luke’s gospel, what do you learn about Jesus’ prayer life?
(2) From Luke 11.1-13.
—Why do his disciples ask him the question they do? Do you feel in a similar place to them? If so why?
—If the Lord’s prayer is a pattern for us (we don’t just recite it but see it as a model), what do we learn about the content of our prayers? What is each line saying? Do your prayers reflect the same content?
—What is Jesus trying to teach us in the parable? How does he do that? What is surprising about the parable? How does Jesus then apply it (vs9-13)
(3) Read John 17 - what do you learn about (a) the way Jesus prays + (b) the content of his prayer? What is his manner? What are his priorities in prayer? What does he focus a lot of attention on? What can you learn about prayer for this?
Application and Prayer
(1) How do you find prayer? Why? What Questions do you have regarding prayer?
(2) What motivates you pray? Does Jesus’ motivation match yours?
(3) If you don’t plan to pray, you won’t pray. Do you plan to pray? If not, how could you start to?
(4) Do you recognise your dependence on God for everything? Are you grateful for every good gift he has given you? In what ways are you self-sufficient and working from your own strength?
(5) Have you ever thought of prayer as wrestling with God? How does this help you and encourage you? Where do you need to keep on being persistent in what you are praying for?
(6) Spend time praying to your father, using the Lord’s prayer as a guide, especially focussing on wrestling with God for “his kingdom to come.”
Through the week
(1) Read John 17 every day and join Jesus in his prayer
(2) Memorise Paul’s prayer to the Ephesians - Ch3.14-21 - which is the passage for next week.
Further Resources
Two sermon’s by Terry Virgo which are just fantastic. Here are the links
(1) http://vimeo.com/5294550 (this is in two parts)
Two great books to buy by Ben Patterson if you want to learn more about prayer
(1) Deepening your conversation with God (learning to love to pray)
(2) God’s prayer book (the power and pleasure of praying the psalms)
A great blog post from Tim Keller about his prayer life - http://redeemercitytocity.com/blog/view.jsp?Blog_param=198 (what is particularly helpful is his thoughts on meditation which he has spoken about at length in many sermons - http://www.redeemer.com)
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