Lord, Teach Us to Pray| How to Pray Well

Luke 11:1

Let’s look at the text Luke 11, verses 1, starting in verse 1, and we’ll go read through verse 13. “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: “Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.”’ And he said to them, ‘Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, “Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him”; and he will answer from within, “Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything”?’”

“I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs. And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

The passage before us represents the highest privilege. The greatest gift that the believer receives from God after his salvation is the gift and the privilege of prayer and through prayer, this is the privilege of access, the gift of all divine resources is there to meet the believer’s every need. The passage, here, begins with a simple, humble request from an unnamed disciple, “Lord, teach us to pray.” And the Lord answers, first teaching the basics of prayer in verses 1-4, providing a form or a pattern for praying, but then he takes the time to encourage us to pray, using multiple inducements that would seem intended to overcome any reluctance that we have to pray. 

First, in verses 5-8, Jesus tells us to come and pray boldly to God, to be persistent in prayer, even insistent, because God is not like a reluctant friend. So any lag in what might seem a lag in an answer it’s not due to any reluctance. That’s one encouragement to pray. The second encouragement, in verses 9-10, there are three staccato commands there, “ask, seek, knock.” And each imperative is then followed by a promise, again encouraging us to make a practice of praying by emphasizing the results of praying. “You will receive, it will be opened, you will find.” Then, third, verses 11-13, Jesus returns to the figure of fatherhood that started the whole lesson, “When you pray, say ‘Father,’” verse 2, because our Father not only knows how to give good gifts, but he actually does give good gifts to his children. 

More than anyone, Jesus Christ understood the privilege of praying to his Father, and he took full advantage of his access to God in prayer. Jesus’ prayer life receives repeated in emphasis in Luke’s Gospel, such that it is really a theme in Luke’s Gospel, Luke 3:21, Luke 5:16, Luke 6:12, Luke 9:18, Luke 9:28, and on it goes through the rest of the Gospel. Jesus would often withdraw to desolate places and pray, sometimes even continuing all night in prayer to God.

And now with this disciple’s question, “Lord, teach us to pray,” Jesus leaps upon the opportunity, here, to teach us to pray and the question is, are you as excited to practice prayer as Jesus is to teach you about it? Do your prayers reflect the kind of joy and intimacy that Jesus enjoyed in prayer, the privilege of access that he taught about, that he encourages us to practice? Or do you, like many, do you have a nagging sense of failure in prayer, that your prayer life is shabby at best, is wholly inconsistent and rather flat and powerless? Because if that’s your sense of it, you’re definitely not alone. Many Christians have felt the way you feel about praying, failing to pray, not praying well. Many still feel that way, and perhaps you do too.

And I think that this has to be one of the greatest victories of our enemy the Devil, when he can make us feel discouraged in the use of what God has given to us, his children, as a precious, precious gift, because when we feel discouraged about praying, this precious gift that we’ve been handed and falls into disuse, neglect, even to look at it reminds us of our failure. Friends, that ought not to be, but that is the Devil’s design, that the most powerful weapon in our arsenal, which brings omnipotent power to bear in our lives in spiritual warfare. It sits harmlessly over here on the shelf. 

And so, beloved, I just want to sound a call. It’s time to wake up and realize that we have been robbed in this whole affair. All of us collectively as Christians, but each of us singularly as well, we have been robbed. Whether we’re reticent to pray because we are shaky in believing in its efficacy, or whether we pray erroneously or in ignorance, the result is the same, isn’t it? Ineffective prayer. For the devil, he rests well, knowing the prayers of the saints will not be employed, used, won’t harm him, but listen, we are the ones who suffer. We are the ones who are being denied the joy and the efficacy of the gift that we’ve received from God of access to him in prayer.

So we’re going to approach this subject of prayer, as we always do, by listening carefully to Jesus, by returning to the Master and hearing him teach. We want to slow down so we can follow his teaching carefully. Our growth and maturity in this vital matter of prayer will happen, and I promise you it most certainly will happen, when we understand the truth, when we embrace it in faith, and when we submit to the truth in our lives, our practice, our thinking, in our hearts and that will be a consequence of our learning what made Jesus rejoice in praying; what made him rejoice in teaching us about praying. 

When we learn what prayer is, what kind of gift that we hold in our hands, this gift of access to the very throne room of our majestic heavenly Father, well, there’s going to be no keeping us out after that. That is gonna be where we’re gonna be inclined to spend the very best hours of our days, in that Holy of Holies, because we’re going to rejoice in the practice of a prayer that builds intimacy with our God, conforming us to his heart, his will, his wisdom.

Having said all that, though, we need to stop and acknowledge how much damaging teaching there has been on the subject of prayer and how it’s affected our prayer lives. There’s a danger particular to this subject, of teaching over the top of false views about prayer, never addressing false expectations that many have developed because of errant and even outright heretical doctrines. Our habits of prayer are inextricably linked to our theology, and specifically to our theology proper, that is, the doctrine of the person and the work of God. So if we have wrong thoughts about God, we will have wrong habits of praying to God as well. But if we clear away our false views about God and correct our misunderstandings about the way he works in the world, and set proper biblical expectations about prayer, then we’ll stand a really good chance of praying well.  

So rather than teach over the top of any misconceptions you may have about prayer, and rather than add yet another layer of prayer doctrine on top of many layers that you may have received from other sources over the years, I think it’s important to confront erroneous teaching about prayer head-on. Doing so is going to allow you to give Jesus’ teaching on prayer a fresh hearing.

False teaching of charismatic pastors, television preachers, conference speakers, enters into our homes through books, devotionals, DVDs, websites, enters into our churches through new programs, catchy campaigns, sermon series, in the pulpit and, by the way, this is the stock in trade of the many conferences, many of the conferences are marketed to evangelical women. Marketed to them, it has a benign and a light-hearted feel. It’s dripping with sappy emotionalism covered with sequins and pink fluff, soothing stories filled with sticky feel good sentiment, funny feel good stories, inane humor. It may seem on the surface to be harmless, but in its essence, it is pure poison. 

But poison happens to sell in America. It is a multi-million-dollar industry, a highly marketable religious commodity and the message is simple. It’s this: God wants you to be happy, healthy, and wealthy. God wants you to have your best life now because, after all, it is all about you. That message is completely contrary to the language and the spirit of the Lord’s Prayer, and yet many false teachers point to the Lord’s Prayer as justifying their doctrine. If you take another look at the text, the statement we find in Luke 11:2, “Your kingdom come.” That’s a distillation of an expanded version over there of Matthew 6:10, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Prosperity preacher Joel Osteen interprets that text this way, quoting, “God longs to give you a glimpse of heaven while you are here on earth. He wants to show you his wonderful plan and to bring it to pass in your life. His will is activated in our lives when we receive Jesus and then choose his will on a daily basis, stand against the forces of darkness, refuse those negative, self-defeating thoughts that come against his will.”

Now a few things Osteen says in that entire quotation, which I’ve distilled, but in that entire quote might pass the sniff test with some undiscerning evangelicals, but when he injects Word of Faith doctrine, you know he does it with a smile. Quoting, “Declare what God says about you. Be empowered to overcome opposition. Stand strong in faith. See God’s will come to pass in your life, just as it is in heaven.” Activating the will of God,” “Canceling negative, self-defeating thoughts,” “Declaring what God says about you,” “Personal empowerment,” all of that phraseology comes directly out of the Word of Faith, positive confession playbook, which is what comprises the prosperity gospel. He tries to legitimize and justify this false teaching by an appeal to the Lord’s Prayer, that that’s what it’s teaching. That’s what Jesus is saying, it’s about your personal empowerment when we pray, Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Bill Johnson, the influential charismatic pastor of Bethel Church in Redding, California. His Jesus Culture band and music make it all over the world. Students from all over the world come to Bethel, Redding and listen and learn in the supernatural, School of Supernatural Ministry. He shares Osteen’s emphasis on positive confession. He writes this, “The will of God is simply this: ‘on earth as it is in heaven.’ Isn’t that refreshing? When we pray, ‘Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done,’ we’re praying for the King’s dominion and will to be realized right here, right now. This is a life-transforming, paradigm-shattering way to do normal Christianity. What is free to operate in heaven should be free to operate here on this planet in your home, your church, your business, and your school. What is not free to operate there, sickness, disease, spiritual bondage and sin, should not be free to operate here, period.”  

In case you’ve missed the emphasis, Johnson goes further to make it clear, but he mutes the older Word of Faith emphasis on physical healing. He believes it, but he mutes it, and he creates a more palatable message for suburban America. Johnson writes this, continuing, “When we make this our mission, lives are set free, bodies are restored, darkness lifts from people’s minds, the rule of the enemy is pushed back in every way imaginable,” and then this, “businesses grow healthy, relationships flower again, people reconnect with their calling and purpose in life, churches grow, and cities feel the effect of having the kingdom flourishing within them. Energy is freed up for kingdom works in ways I have never seen before. This is the lifestyle for which we were made.” End quote.

That’s an excerpt that comes from Johnson’s 2014 book, The Supernatural Power of a Transformed Mind Study Guide: Access to a Life of Miracles. But in addition, and especially marketed to outsiders, it’s the message of personal empowerment. It’s about wealth production. It’s about relationship success. It’s about overcoming your chronic fatigue syndrome and hormone deficiencies. It’s things that seem popular today promised to you, freedom from the modern demons of anxiety, depression, insignificance, to experience fulfillment and meaning and happiness in life, it’s all the same message, rewarmed and served on the plate. 

Is that Jesus’ point in Luke 11:2, or in the parallel form in Matthew 6:10? As Johnson said, “That the will of God is simply this, ‘on earth as it is in heaven.’” Is that what Jesus is teaching here?

How does that fit in with what Jesus said in Luke 9:23, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself. Take up his cross and follow me to death.” False teachers deny that. American religion denies that. They lead unstudied, gullible pastors astray, who then in turn teach and preach that stuff from their pulpits, hand out their books, and then, armed with an invincible ignorance, they ignore the point of the most basic instruction in Luke 11:1-4 and rush headlong into destructive error.

And these pastors tell their people, in ignorance, to pray with an impetuous faith, making a positive confession of what you want from God, and they cite Jesus’ words there in verses 9 and 10, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” If you doubt your ability to blow doors open, it’s your faith, it’s your failure in believing, that is the issue. Folks, this is predatory stuff. Predatory. Preying upon the ignorance’s of people who don’t know the Word. Why don’t they know the Word, because for decades they haven’t been taught it. They’ve come to believe, after all, that God is our Father, and he’s indulgent, therefore, and he loves to give good gifts to his children, even giving him the Holy Spirit to name it and claim it in faith. 

That’s why it’s so important, beloved, to expose these thoughts and correct them with what the Bible actually teaches, starting with what Jesus teaches here. So let’s provide a welcome and blessed contrast, looking back to what Jesus actually taught us about prayer in Luke 11:2-4. What he teaches about prayer, it is at the same time a lesson about God, especially in the first set of petitions and in the second set of petitions is a lesson about how we relate to God, it is self-evident that this prayer is centered on God and his interests, especially in that first set of petitions.

But even when we get to the second set, there, too, our concerns are framed in the light of God’s interests. Frederick Godet says, “This absolute priority given to divine interests implies an emptying of ourselves, a heavenly love and zeal which are not natural to man, and which suppose in us the heart of a true child of God, occupied above all things with the interests of his heavenly Father.” That is profoundly true. The Lord’s Prayer is not man-centered. This is a fundamentally God-centered prayer. This is the prayer of every true child of God, the prayer of every true believer, every true and real and sincere disciple of Christ. Unbelievers recite this prayer all the time, don’t they? You hear it all the time at public events. False teachers appeal to this prayer all the time. But it’s only the true Christian who knows what these petitions mean, and they pray them from the heart. 

In the opening address, Jesus “said, ‘When you pray, say, Father.’” Father, it speaks of reverence and devotion. That first petition, “hallowed be your name,” is about honor and adoration, the worship of the true and living God. The second petition, “Your kingdom come” is about our highest loyalty, fidelity, and submission to the will of God; God is sovereign, and we rejoice in that. It’s in the context of a first set of God-centered petitions that we frame our daily needs, and, get this, contrary to what the false, health, and wealth, prosperity preachers are teaching, this second set of petitions, you’ll notice, is framed within and assumes the daily stresses and sorrows of life in a fallen world, doesn’t it? It doesn’t deny the existence of that. It doesn’t even tell us to try to escape it. Our daily need for bread, forgiveness, protection from sin, that prayer is not take away my need for daily bread, forgiveness, protection, but rather care for me when I need those things.

If we’ll turn away from what we see with our eyes all around us, and if we’ll look squarely at the Scripture and the face of God in the face of Jesus Christ, we’ll learn to rest in him. And if we’ll simply rest in loving and gentle arms of the one who tells us to address him as father, we will find every reason for hope and assurance and find all fear and anxiety and worry dissipate. Because this father is the one who bears the glorious name, the name, which is hallowed, holy, sovereign, absolute, perfect, wonderful, majestic. He’s the one who’s will is being done without any change, without any interruption, without any hindrance whatsoever.

Our own inconsistency and lack of faith cannot thwart his will. Who are we to think our believing or not believing actually makes one bit of difference to him executing perfection wisdom. And for his own glory, our father has chosen to work out his perfect plan of glory through redemption, by using, yes, terrible things, but by using the Fall, by using Satan and demons, by using sin and temptation, and as I’ve been discovering lately, by using sickness and illness, by using disease, carrying out his perfect will by using our need for his glory. Like small children who must grow up to understand the wisdom of our fathers, so we, too, are in a position of trust, looking up to our heavenly father, who is perfectly good and infinitely wise. And Jesus teaches us to begin our prayer in humility, and frankly, rationality, by acknowledging absolute right, the only right, to do all that he pleases, to do all things in his own perfect time.