This session on prayer from Luke 11:1-4 was given to University of Surrey Christian Union on 2 June 2022.
What do you want to achieve this summer? By the time September rolls around, what do you want to have done? I’m sure many of you have planned some time off – holidays with family or getaways with friends. Before September comes, you want to have got some rest and relaxation. Perhaps you have lined up a job for the next few months, with the hope that by the end of the summer you will have saved up some. Maybe you are about to graduate and your great goal for the summer is just to find something to do in September, to get a job or a placement or onto another course. I know for some of you, you have lined up different Christian teams for the coming weeks, this summer you want to spend plenty of time serving God. Well, those are all good goals for the summer. However, this evening, at this final week of CU, I want to encourage you to add another goal to your list. In fact, challenge you to put a certain goal at the very top of your list. To prioritise doing one thing over all others this summer: I want you to aim, by the end of this summer, to have a more consistent, enjoyable, prayer life. If you are a Christian here this evening, is that not something that you would want? In September, would you not love to be able to look back over the previous 3 months and think: I have had some really sweet times of prayer with the Lord this summer. When the time comes to start the new term, would it not be great to have already formed a habit of daily prayer, rather than trying to do so as things get busier?
I’ve been asked to come along and finish your short series on loving the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Particularly to think about that last one in relation to prayer, how to love the Lord with all our strength in prayer. In order to do that, we are going to look briefly at what Jesus has to say about prayer in Luke 11. So if you have a Bible with you, turn to 11:1-4. Did you notice there in 11:1 that upon seeing the Lord’s prayer life, his regular habit of going aside into a certain place to speak with his Father, one of his disciples ask him to teach them how they too can do that. When exposed to a genuine joyful prayer life, he looks and says I want to have that. Teach me to do that. I think that is an attitude all Christians should have. In fact, I think we can be so bold as to say that if that is not something you desire, it is a pretty good indication that you may not be a Christian. In Romans 8 Paul explains that to be a Christian is to have the Spirit of God dwelling inside you and so to naturally cry out in prayer. To say you are a Christian and yet not want a real regular prayer life is like me saying I love my wife, but I don’t want to talk to her or even spend time with her. Now of course being honest, we don’t always want to pray. That is certainly true for me. And yet, as Christians, we should at least always want to want to pray, long to long for the kind of warm regular prayer life Jesus seemed to enjoy. That was true of this disciple, and so Jesus responds to his request and takes time to teach us how to pray.
In 11:1, the disciple asks: ‘Lord, teach us to pray...’. I wonder if a younger Christian came up to you and ask you to teach them how to pray, what you might say. How would you answer that question? I imagine that most of you would say something like this: ‘Well, prayer is really the way we talk to our heavenly Father, and so all you need to do is start speaking to him. To help avoid distractions, you could find a quiet space, perhaps close your eyes, but the main thing is simply to believe that God hears you and to speak to him like you might talk to a friend sitting beside you.’ If that is how you would answer, then I don’t think you have said anything wrong. And yet, do you see here that that isn’t how Jesus responds? Jesus doesn’t send his disciples off to go and freely pray whatever comes to mind, though he could have, instead, he gives them a form to pray. He not only tells them to speak to their Father in 11:2, but he also gives them instructions on the kind of things they might talk about and say to him. Now, just to be clear, Jesus isn’t teaching them that they can only pray these things. Like these are some kind of magic words that are the only things we can say to God. We can see that clearly from his own prayer life, in John 17 he uses lots of other words, and even from other passages where Jesus teaches people to pray. For example, this form of prayer, known as the Lord’s Prayer, is actually different from the version Jesus teaches in Matthew 6 on a different occasion, where he includes some other items and topics for prayer. Jesus is not giving a prayer here that is to be exclusive, as if we can pray this and this only, but is to be an example, we should pray prayers that sound like this one.
Why don’t you have an enjoyable prayer life? Why don’t you pray more than you do? As a Christian, through the work of Jesus Christ, you can enter into communion, start communication, with the Lord of the universe at any time. Why don’t you? What stops you? Well of course there might be some practical things. Maybe you don’t make time for it, you just aren’t disciplined enough in your life to regularly fit it in. If that is you, could I encourage you set aside a certain time each day to speak with God. Most people find 10 or 15 minutes in the morning, before the day gets busy or they get tired, to be the best for this. I know I am speaking to students here, so this isn’t a given, but I hoping that you find time to have some kind of breakfast and brush your teeth for at least a few minutes, before you leave the house in the morning. Can I encourage to add pausing to pray to God for a few minutes to that list of things you must do before you leave the house? To make that a discipline, a habit, a part of your routine? If we never make time to pray, we can hardly be surprised if we never get round to praying. However, I imagine, for many of you, even if you were to cultivate that kind of habit, you would still struggle to pray. After a few days you would find those 10 minutes would begin to drag, that is because morning after morning you would end up saying the same thing. As exciting as some of your lives may be, not that much changes from day to day. You might pray about university, family, friends, church, and essentially end up having the exact same conversation with God every day. I think that is probably the most common complaint about prayer, reason why many fail to enjoy a regular prayer life.
Well could it be, that Jesus in his perfect wisdom knew that this was going to be the greatest challenge his followers would face, and so when he taught them how to pray he did so in a way that would help to sustain and cultivate their prayer lives, that in giving them an example, a form to follow, a starting point for what to say, a prayer that they could take and make their own, that he was guarding against that danger that they would all simply run out of things to say. I’m not sure if you have ever grown a tree – but it isn’t quite as simple as sticking a seed in the ground and coming back 30 years later. That seed needs to be supported. As the shoot begins to come out of the ground, a stake must be placed beside it to support it, to ensure that it grows upwards, rather than simply flops over. And year after year the stake needs to change to help hold it up as it grows bigger and bigger. Well, can I suggest to you that here, and in the rest of the Bible, we are given a stake to help support the growth of our prayer lives. That the Lord has given us forms of prayer in his word that help to point us in the right direction, help us grow up into a mature prayer life, as we learn year by year to pray. You see in some ways, prayer is the most natural thing in the world for Christians– as I said in Romans 8 we learn that it is natural for those who are filled with the Holy Spirit to cry out in prayer to their Father. Yet, see here that we also need to be taught how to pray, that is what they ask for in 11:1, and that is exactly what Jesus does.
What does this look like? Well in a few minutes, we are going to take a break, and I’m going to give you a chance to sit and do this by yourself, to stop for 4 or 5 minutes and use these words that Jesus gives here to aid you as you speak to your heavenly Father. Now this doesn’t mean you simply read out these words in 11:2-4. It would be find to do that, but that is going to last about 15 seconds, and I don’t think that is what Jesus meant us to do with these words. What he gives us here is an example, a form to prompt and point your prayers, highlight the things you should praise God for or bring to mind the concerns you should be praying about. [Demonstrate from 11:2-4]. Just to say this way of learning how to pray isn’t new. For centuries men and woman have done this. In fact, I think we can see it within the Bible. In Acts 4 we see the early church using Psalm 2 like this to pray to God. When Jesus is on the cross he uses Psalm 22 to cry out to God. In fact, the whole book of Psalms was written for this purpose to be a songbook and prayer book for God’s people. So this isn’t new, praying the Bible is as old as the Bible itself. However, if you want to read more about it, can I urge to pick up this short book by Donald Whitney. Less than 100 pages, and only £10 on Amazon, I guarantee it is the best £10 you will ever spend, the most influential 100 pages you may ever read. I first read them around 7 years ago and they have entirely revolutionised my prayer life since then, each morning I open the book of Psalms, pray through a psalm in this way alongside a prayer list I have of all the people I pray for, which is another helpful tool I’m happy to talk about after the session. While there are definitely still mornings I don’t feel like praying, I am so thankful I have been able to enjoy a much warmer and regular prayer life by using Scripture as a stake and support. That the Lord has been teaching me to pray through showing me how to do so in his Word. [Session finishes with practical exercise of participants trying this for themselves].
ALEXANDER ARRELL