Prayer and the disciple

Prayer and the Disciple

Modern Education is a curious thing. We set the teacher a frightening task. Teach this child. And then as if this were not a big enough task, we disadvantage the teacher at about thirty to one; thirty pupils all with different abilities and dispositions, each needing the individual attention of the teacher. Our forbears did it differently. The craftsman showed the individual apprentice how it was done and inspected the individual's work. Certainly, there were group situations and teaching, but there were times for individual interaction.

Being a Christian is a bit like being an apprentice. Jesus is the master and we have to learn to do things like the Master. Matthew 10:24-25 explains it.“The student is not above the teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for students to be like their teachers, and servants like their masters”. It is based on a respect for the superiority of the Master and a close imitation of what he does! In Luke 11:1 we see such apprenticeship in action “One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”The apprentice had seen the Master do it, that great art of prayer and wanted to do it like Him. His response ,”the Lord's Prayer” is one of simplicity. It is both a model and a starting point. It is helpful to shape our own prayers on this great pattern prayer, beginning with His sovereignty and finishing with our fragility, requesting the fulfilment of our basic needs.

Prayer is a big issue. In it the Christian faces the dilemma that should not be a dilemma between intimacy and reverence or as some have put it between God Almighty and God all matey. Some see it as a deeply special activity requiring sanctified places and arcane words. Others treat it with the carelessness they treat our water supply. The Bible has something about this in Ephesians 6:18-19

“And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, “

Nothing is off limits. Nowhere is off limits.”... neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.” (John 4:21). The qualification on all this is “in the Spirit” Prayer is an act of listening and not simply of asking. As we pray we should be informed by Scripture and sensitized by contemplation. Our daily experience should be seen in the context of divinity.‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’Acts 17:28 This is Paul on Mars Hill. Prayer should be the very breath of our existence. As air is the essential element of our physical life,so prayer is the essential element of our spiritual lives.

What happens when we pray? God listens and often calls on someone else to act! In Acts 9:11” The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying” God hears Saul's prayer and then asks Annanias to act. Miracles have been evoked, and mountains moved by prayer but it is in the arena of the human heart that we most frequently see this power unleashed. Prayer will change your attitudes and your actions.

Pray carefully. Pray continuously.

Bible Quotes from the New International Version