Teach me to pray

I am sure the disciples had been praying all their life before they had met Jesus Christ and before they had began to follow Him. Also the disciples were Jews. For which Jew didn’t know the act of prayer or at least know about prayer? And I’m quite sure they had been praying with Jesus before that blessed day according to Luke 11. They had come to Jesus after one of his solitary prayer sessions and one of the disciples asked Him to teach them the discipline of prayer. And He taught what is famously called, The Lord’s Prayer.

I’ve prayed The Lord’s Prayer a countless times, most of them in my primary school days at morning assembly time. I have prayed as a kid, in groups and on my own. I also remember a few prayer times with my best friend in my teen years. Even before I came to Christ, I knew what prayer was about and knew that God existed. I just didn’t know about the relationship aspect of God in Christ; that He wanted me to come to Him as his daughter and servant and in return, that He will be my Father and God.

Like the disciples, I find myself sincerely asking God to teach me how to pray in the past 2 months or so. For the more I reach for a manifestation of who He is, the more I realize the need for depth, clarity in my utterances. I may have thought I knew how to pray but in fact, I didn’t. It’s no wonder the writer of Romans says in chapter 8:26-27 that the Spirit helps us to pray to point that He even makes intercession for us, for we don’t know what we ought to pray for.

I find myself having to borrow and buy books on prayer, asking God to lead me to pray specifically for change not only in my life but in the life of others. It’s somewhat an unlearning and relearning process, fraught with new insights. Most of all, I love what God is teaching me about Himself!