As the disciples traveled with Christ, they repeatedly saw and heard Him pray. Sometimes He prayed in their presence; other times, He retreated alone to places of private prayer with His Father. The Twelve watched and were compelled by the Savior’s commitment to prayer. The second member of the Tri-unity was committed to pray and needed to pray.
And as they heard Him pray, they evidently were convinced of the uniqueness of His prayers. He prayed in ways they did not. So a natural question arose: “Lord, teach us to pray…” (Luke 11:1).
And so Jesus taught them a simple method to pray. His words were not a prayer to be recited by rote as if the words had mystical effect on the Father. His brief words were a model for the attitude to cultivate in prayer and the content for what to pray. As one person has said, “It’s okay to recite the Lord’s Prayer — just take an hour to do it.” Use it to guide to direct how and why you pray.
As we slowly studied our way through that prayer, gleaning as much as we could from the Lord about the nature of prayer, we finished each worship service with an extended prayer that attempted to model what we learned that day.
Below is the text of those prayers. Parts of those prayers are taken from related passages of Scripture, parts are taken or adapted from A Way to Pray by Matthew Henry (edited and revised by O. Palmer Robertson, a book I recommend to you), and parts are my reflection on the themes in these verses. I pray that these prayers will stimulate and encourage your own prayer life.
[The first prayer, “Our Father” isn’t listed because it was given in relation to a special event at our church. The rest of the prayers also contain references to specific events at our church; you may obviously personalize them for your own context.]
“Teach Us to Pray” — Some Model Prayers
