We have embarked on a significant journey for our weekend teachings at CrossPoint: "And When You Pray."
The significance of this series emerges from three different insights about the passage we are using in Matthew 6:9-13.
First, it's the Lord's Prayer, which makes it worthy of our time and attention.
Second, Jesus told us to pray "like" this and gave us a model to follow so we are given some actual instruction and handles for a disciple to develop a prayer life.
But, third, and this is where my heart has been dwelling lately, the passage is an answer to prayer in and of itself!
The Lord's Prayer exists in a couple of places in the New Testament, and while we are focusing on the Gospel of Matthew, it's the same prayer in Luke that shows us why we even have this prayer:
"Now Jesus 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." And he said to them, "When you pray, say…" Luke 11:1–2.
When the disciples asked this question of Jesus, they literally prayed a prayer asking for help learning how to pray! This tells me that we need to have a specific posture when approaching prayer.
Humility - the disciples grew up in devout Jewish communities where prayer was anything but foreign, yet when they heard Jesus' prayer, they realized they were not experts. The power, authority, and sincerity of Jesus' prayers inclined them to ask for help, "Lord, teach us to pray."
Complexity - we love to talk about the simplicity of prayer and tell new believers it's just a conversation. While God wants us to approach Him with the faith of a child, the fact that these disciples asked for instruction indicates there might be some missing pieces. Creating "to-do" lists for God, prayers that use our mouths but never our ears, or memorized phrases that fall meaninglessly from our lips are all insufficient. There must be more, and the disciples asked, "Lord, teach us to pray."
Growth - the disciples of Jesus represented a wide assortment of individuals with varied spiritual backgrounds. From fishermen to tax collectors, from teenage boys to married men with wives, homes, and businesses, this rag-tag gathering of future Apostles had one thing in common: there was still room for growth. Whether quiet and contemplative or public and polished, they recognized their need to become more proficient in their prayers. So the disciples asked, "Lord, teach us to pray."
As we walk through this series, I want to encourage you to come with these three postures: humility, complexity, and growth.
I am seeking the Lord for you and us. We don't need to see this as another series to come and go, but we need to experience the embers of revival, a prayer culture renewed, to begin seeing CrossPoint as a house of prayer.
So, let each of us ask in one voice, "Lord, teach us to pray."