Praying as Jesus Taught Us to Pray

“But (Jesus) would withdraw to deserted places and pray,” (Luke 5:16). Prayer was a vital part of Jesus’s relationship with God. He would regularly slip away from his disciples and from the demands of the crowds to have one-on-one time with God (Luke 5:16). Following his baptism, he spent an extended time of prayer and fasting in the wilderness, clarifying his call before beginning his public ministry (Luke 4:1—13). He prayed for clarity in the face of out-of-control popularity at Capernaum (Mark 1:32—39). He prayed for guidance as he chose the twelve (Luke 6:12—16). In Gethsemane, he prayed for strength as he struggled with the reality of his impending death (Luke 22:39—46). The gospel writer noted that it was his custom to go there to pray (Luke 22:39). Throughout his ministry, Jesus turned to God for guidance and strength to do his work. Prayer was the means by which he walked with God. Prayer—one-on-one time with God—lies at the heart of the spiritual life. It is as vital to our spiritual life as it was to Jesus’s. It is as essential to our spirituality as the air we breathe is to our physical bodies. Yet, many of us do not know how to pray. Most of us feel inadequate when it comes to praying. So, we look to someone to teach us how to pray. What is true for us today—looking for someone to teach us how to pray—was true among Jesus’s own disciples. As Jesus returned from a time of prayer, an unnamed disciple approached him with a simple request. “Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples” (Luke 11:1). As faithful Jews, the disciples were taught to pray at set times throughout the day just as today’s religious practices teach us to pray in the morning and at night. They were also taught set prayers to pray just as today’s religious practices teach us patterns and formulas to use in prayer. This disciple, however, wanted something more—something more than what he experienced in his prayer rituals, something like what he saw Jesus experience when he prayed. Something about Jesus’s experience of prayer had struck the disciple. It was obvious that Jesus’s experience of prayer had a significant impact on his life. The disciple recognized there was something different—something more—to prayer for Jesus than what he himself experienced. Whatever that something more was, he wanted it. He wanted to experience the depth and meaning of prayer as Jesus experienced it. He wanted to experience the impact and difference that prayer made in Jesus’s life. Prompted by the desire stirring within him, the disciple approached Jesus with his request. Many of us can identify with the disciple’s desire and with his request. We want an experience of prayer that is personal and intimate, deep and meaningful, significant and transformative. I identify with the disciple’s desire and the frustration which fueled it. I remember the first time I voiced this desire. It was the summer after my senior year in high school. I was in the mountains of New Mexico, east of Santa Fe. Sitting under a pine tree, I prayed: “Lord, teach me to call you ‘Father.’” My prayer expressed my sense that there was more to the relationship with God than I knew or experienced. It was a confession of the distance—the lack of personal connection—that I felt in my relationship with God. It expressed my frustration with my experience of prayer. God answered my prayer by leading me on a spiritual journey in which I experienced “grace upon grace” (John 1:16). God led me on a journey of learning how to pray. Jesus’s response to the disciple’s request was to teach what is traditionally called the Lord’s Prayer. This prayer has been memorized and recited by the followers of Jesus since the days of the early church. It is commonly recited every Sunday in the worship services of liturgical churches. The prayer, however, is more than a prayer to be recited. It is a model designed to help us learn how to pray. Accordingly, it is also called the Model Prayer. The prayer Jesus taught is indeed a model that guides the student of prayer into a deeper experience of God in prayer. Jesus’s model teaches the attitude that undergirds a meaningful prayer experience along with a pattern that guides our focus in that experience. This book grows out of my own journey of learning how to pray—a journey that continues even as I offer my thinking on the Lord’s Prayer. In writing this book, I do not mean to imply that I have “arrived” in my prayer life. I do not mean to imply that my experience of prayer matches that which Jesus experienced with God. Rather, I seek to offer some of the insights I have gained on my journey. I seek to put into words some of what I have learned through my struggle in learning how to pray. I seek to communicate my understanding of praying as Jesus taught us to pray. The book seeks to interpret the Lord’s Prayer as a model that teaches us how to pray. The model is for those who, like that early disciple, are dissatisfied with their experience of prayer and feel inadequate in their efforts to pray. It is, for them, Jesus’s how-to-pray guide. In our desire to learn how to pray in a way that is meaningful and enriching, is there a better one to teach us than Jesus? Is there a better place to start than with the model he gave that first disciple who put our desire into words: “Lord, teach us to pray”?