
But does God care what we pray about? Are there some things
we should say to God in prayer and other things we should not say? What kind of
prayers does God want to hear? Or can we
say anything to Him?
Consider human relationships for a second:
- What should every husband say to this wife? Wife to a husband?
- Are there things every father should say to their son/daughter?
- Are there things that every child should say to their parent?
Clearly each of these relationships carries with them
obligations. A parent who does not tell
their child they love them is failing as a parent. A husband who doesn't tell his wife:
"You're beautiful," is probably failing as well.
But in our day, it is unusual to think that are words that
we should say to God. It is common today
to hear people say that we should talk to God about whatever is on our
hearts. While there is some truth to
this ("….Cast all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you."
(1 Peter 5:7) "Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart
before him; God is a refuge for us." (Psalms 62:8)), God calls us to pray
more than simply whatever comes to our minds (as if the best prayers were
streams of consciousness prayers). He
also calls us to pray more than just what we are anxious about.
If you heard that Jesus was going to be giving a seminar on
how to pray, what would you expect him to talk about? Well, God in wisdom and
power, has preserved and inspired records from both Matthew and Luke of Jesus's
teaching on prayer for us. What does
Jesus say about how we should pray? In
this post we'll just look at one aspect of Jesus teaching on prayer. In future posts, we'll flush out other areas
of his doctrine of prayer.
For now, let's look at Matthew 6:9a and Luke 11:1-2a: "Pray then like this..." and
"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..."
As we will see in future posts, the way of praying that
Jesus teaches his disciples does indeed include prayer for all our needs and
anxieties. But note what Jesus does NOT
say when he is teaching on prayer or when the disciples ask to be taught to pray. He does not say: "Hey guys, just pray
whatever it is that's on your heart.
That's totally cool." No.
Jesus gives them both a pattern ("like this") and a form
("in this way") for prayer.
If the disciples, when they asked to learn how to pray, were told by
Jesus to pray the Lord's Prayer, shouldn't we, who also want to learn to pray,
learn the Lord's Prayer and what it means?
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