Teach Us to Pray

(Part 1)

An article in Newsweek magazine in November of 1998 stated that two-thirds of all Americans routinely pray at home, especially retirees and families in small towns. This article also says that prayer is more of a woman thing. Females are 28% more likely to pray at home than are men!

Well, I’m not sure where they got their information. I can’t help but wonder if two-thirds of all Americans do routinely pray at home. I hope so. But I doubt it. It is especially for many Americans to pray because we are so busy. Our culture is more an active, pragmatic, keep-yourself-busy one, and not inclined towards prayer. Oh sure, most of us pray when we get in jams, but I mean prayer as a way of life.

How’s your prayer life? Perhaps you pray regularly and find it a satisfying experience. Perhaps you’re a Christian but you don’t pray regularly. Maybe you want a deeper prayer life. I want to talk in this sermon and some upcoming sermons about prayer. Actually these are more teaching sermons – basic teaching on prayer. My goal is not just to give us information about prayer, but to have us experience a more meaningful prayer life. In this sermon I want to ask three basic questions: Why pray? What kind prayers are there? When should we pray?

First of all, why pray? Probably every religion includes offering prayers to a deity. Prayer was part of Hebrew religion in the Old Testament. Jesus prayed. The followers of Jesus in the New Testament prayed. Great men and women of faith have always been people of prayer. So we have a great heritage in our Judeo-Christian tradition that shows us how crucial prayer is to spiritual vitality.

But there is another way to look at it. Christianity isn’t just believing the right stuff, or intellectually subscribing to certain doctrines and creeds. It is a relationship with God, a relationship with Jesus Christ. “Prayer” is communication with God. It is the natural thing to do to keep our relationship with God alive and growing.

My wife Nancy and I don’t see our three children much anymore. They are pretty much out of the nest by now. They don’t live that far away, but it’s too far for daily or weekly visits. We do try to stay in touch though. Usually Sunday night is our night to call the kids. We want to keep in touch so we can maintain a close relationship with our children.

Likewise, if we want to have a healthy relationship with God it should be natural for us to want to stay in touch with our heavenly Father. When we love someone, we want to communicate. If you and I have no desire to pray, it raises questions about whether or not we have a relationship with God and whether or not we love God. Imagine our saying to someone, “I love you more than anyone else in the world…I just can’t find time to be with you”!

Why pray? We pray because it is the natural thing to do to keep our relationship with God fresh and vital.

The second question I would ask about prayer is: What kind of prayers might we pray?

In order to have a rich and full prayer life it is good to use different kinds of prayers. There are a number of types of prayers. One helpful way to look at some of these is through the acronym
A C T S.

The “A” stands for adoration. In this kind of prayer we adore and worship God. God is worthy of our praise! We were created to praise and glorify God. Often this is one of the least used prayers, where we ask for nothing, but just praise God for who God is!

The “C” stands for confession. Confession is prayer where we acknowledge our sins and failures and confess them to God. “Lord, I’m sorry. Please forgive me.”

“T” stands for prayers of thanksgiving. We thank God for the blessings of life, we come to God with a grateful heart.

Prayers of supplication are represented by the “S” in ACTS. Supplication means we ask for things, both for ourselves and others. Praying for others is often called intercession. There is nothing wrong with asking for things: that God meet our needs, or that God touch and bless others. Jesus told us to ask that we receive. The Book of James in the New Testament says we don’t have because we don’t ask!

There may be other types of prayers in addition to adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication. For example, another type of prayer that could be mentioned is committal. The prayer of committal is where we surrender ourselves and relinquish ourselves to God and His will. Jesus’ prayer from the cross, “Father into your hands I commend my spirit” is an example of a prayer of committal to God.

If we daily use these 5 different types of prayers our prayer experience should be enriched! Sometimes when people are immature spiritually, or stunted in their prayer life, they never get beyond the “gimme” stage. All prayers are supplication. “I want this, I want that.” It would be good for these people to broaden their prayer life to include prayers of thanksgiving and praise. I once met someone, however, who said, “I never pray for myself.” Well, Jesus prayed for Himself and there is nothing inherently wrong with that. Praying for oneself can be part of a well rounded prayer life.

The third basic question I want to ask about prayer is: When should we pray? To answer this question I would like us to look at Jesus’ prayer life, so that we may get some cues as to when we should engage in prayer.

When we look at Jesus we see that Jesus got up early in the morning to pray. In Mark 1:35 it says, “In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.” Many of the great saints of the church rose as early as 4 or 5 o’clock in the morning to pray. Perhaps getting up half an hour earlier than usual to pray would be a great way to develop a prayer habit and to start the day off on the right foot. I am not an early morning person. I am more of a late night person. But I do have the advantage of being able to be alone at the house in the morning after Nancy leaves for work, and that is usually my time for prayer. If I jog in the morning I have also found that it is a good time to be praying.

Jesus also prayed when life was unusually busy. Luke 5:15-16 says, “But now more than ever the word about Jesus spread abroad; many crowds would gather to hear him and to be cured of their diseases. But he would withdraw to deserted places and pray.”

As Jesus’ popularity increased people would flock to Him, to hear Him preach or teach or to be healed. People always seemed to want something from Him. Luke says Jesus would withdraw at times to pray. Mark 6:31 says Jesus didn’t even have time to eat (that sounds very modern, doesn’t it!).

In the sixth chapter of Mark it says how Jesus and His disciples withdrew to get away from the crowds and be alone for a while. However, the crowds followed them. Jesus taught them, the miraculously fed them with only five loaves and two fish. Finally after dismissing the crowd it says that Jesus went up on the mountain to pray (Mark 6:46).

Busyness can easily crowd out prayer. Jesus was busy too, but He disciplined Himself to set aside times when He would withdraw to pray. A pastor once told a group of clergy that he telephoned the office of Bishop Ault, who was our Eastern Pa. Conference bishop some years ago. The bishop’s secretary told this pastor, “Bishop Ault can’t come to the phone right now, he’s praying.” The pastor telling the story said that at first he was surprised and a little put out by the fact that the bishop would not take his call, but afterwards learned a lesson from it. Undoubtedly Bishop Ault had a busy schedule, and yet he chose to set aside times to get away from the demands of his work and to pray. Perhaps it is when we are busiest that we need prayer the most.

Jesus also prayed during the great, significant events of His life. Luke 6:12 says, “Now during those days he went out to the mountain to pray; and he spent the night in prayer to God.” Jesus prayed all night! But do you know what He did the next morning? He chose the twelve disciples! The Bible also says Jesus prayed when He was baptized and when He was transfigured on the mountain. Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before He was nailed to the cross, and He prayed as He hung on the cross with words like “Father forgive them” and “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” During the great crises of His life, before He made important decision, Jesus prayed.

This can be a model for us, that we under gird all of the major events and important decisions of our life with prayer: before we marry, before choosing a job or career, when we are picking a college, when we are going through suffering or tragedy. Through prayer we can get God’s strength and guidance for these times.

Jesus prayed as He faced temptation. As Jesus became more popular and well known people wanted to make Him their earthly king. How did Jesus respond? “When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself” (John 6:15). While it does not say specifically that Jesus prayed there on the mountain we can assume that He did. Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane as He faced the temptation to avoid the cross. There in the Garden He also told His disciples, “Pray, that you will not fall into temptation” (Luke 22:40). When we face temptations one of the ways to head them off is by praying.

Jesus prayed spontaneously as life unfolded before Him. There were times when prayer just naturally seemed to flow in response to what was happening to our Lord. For instance, when Jesus once encountered resistance to His ministry, He just seemed to blurt out a prayer of thanks: I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants” (Matthew 11:25).

Any time of the day or night, during any circumstances, we can pray: while at work, as we drive our car, when we see someone in need, as we think of something for which we’re thankful.

Ephesians 6:18 says, “Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.”
1 Thessalonians 5:17 says, Pray continually.” It is good if we stay in touch with God throughout the day and are open to His presence all the day long. I read years ago where Norman Vincent Peale suggested praying every fifteen minutes. That does not mean we have to stop, bow our heads and fold our hands, but rather that we consciously turn our thoughts to God or breathe a little prayer often throughout the day.

Today we have thought about some basic questions regarding prayer: Why pray? What kinds of prayers are there? When should we pray? In upcoming sermons we shall look at topics like: Are there things that can hinder God’s answering our prayers? What does it mean to pray “in Jesus’ name”? How important is it to have faith when we pray?

Back to Archive Listing