Lord, Teach Us to Pray: The Three Parts of Learning Prayer
Example (or demonstration) and teaching, then Q&A to help interpret what’s happening.
I woke up in the middle of the night Sunday morning, thinking again about how to teach people to pray, and I had a new thought: we really need three interwoven parts to learn how to pray well.
First: “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’” (Luke 11:1).
The disciples watched what Jesus did, so they had an example. As one of my friends said, “Prayer is more caught than taught.”
Except, at least in this case, catching prayer was not enough. The disciples asked Jesus to teach them, too. That’s the second piece.
And the third: we see in the story of Samuel (1 Samuel 3), who had an actual experience of God audibly speaking to him, but didn’t know how to interpret it until Eli told him what it was.
Example, teaching to explain the why behind it, and someone to answer questions about what is happening in real life.
I don’t know if this applies to every form of pedagogy, but I suspect so: a child watches a parent in the kitchen, reads the recipe, and then asks for help. A child watches a parent read and hears some books read aloud, then has some teaching and asks some questions.
Growing Prayer is meant to help with this.
Lord, we welcome you into our week this week. Go before us and behind us. Surround us. We love you, Lord. Amen.
My love be with you all in Jesus the Messiah,
Amy Joy
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