When talking of prayer, our minds usually turn to the “Lord’s Prayer” found in Luke 11:1. Actually we could call it the “Disciples Prayer”, since they asked Jesus…..”Lord, teach us to pray as John taught his disciples.” So prayer can be taught and, accordingly, can be learned.
What amazes me is that Jesus’ disciples had plenty of prayers at their disposal: 150 Psalms plus some 100 other prayers found throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, not to mention, as Luke suggests, prayers taught by John the Baptizer who had his own group of disciples. I’m sure there hundreds of prayers from the various rabbis who were teaching and had their group of followers. Jesus and his disciples grew up in a religion that had a living and rich tradition of prayer. Yet the disciples wanted to learn more and wanted to learn from Jesus how to pray.
Perhaps there are more books written today on prayer than any other subject. Yet there is always more to learn.
We first might ask the question…”What is prayer?” Each of us has our own answer to that one.
I have read where prayer is the “elevation of the mind to God …..to adore Him, to thank Him and to ask Him what we need.”
This is a fairly good definition. The first part covers most of the Psalms. The second part covers major components of biblical prayer; praise, thanksgiving, and supplication. Be sure though, the biblical vocabulary of prayer provides more than one definition of prayer and covers a much wider spectrum: creation songs, wisdom psalms, prayers of trust, lament psalms and confession of sins….both for others as well as personal.
The third one……….”ask what we need”. Don’t we know what we need? I sure do. I don’t mind telling God exactly what I need and why. I know just what would make life perfect for me.
As we start our journey into what might be in part, an unexplored area, we will look at the various prayers….but this time focusing on the Old Testament.
Ultimately, though, it is not the words we use that count, but the sincerity and the truth of the heart. Nice words are not enough and not necessarily fitting. After all, what matters most is not so much the words we use or how we come to prayer, but how we come out of it….hopefully transformed by an encounter and dialogue with God!
AbideLines 