Christs Principles for Prayer

Many years ago I like many other Christians was struggling with my prayer life. I had come to a place of routine and repetition. Instead of sharing in my prayers I seemed to only be asking and usually asking without receiving. As a pastor I began to look to God's word for clues and answers to how to see my prayers become meaningful once again. I remembered a time as a child when my prayers were true conversations with God and there was a real sense of his presence during those times. Growing up in a dysfunctional family with an alcoholic father there were many times when I truly needed to talk to God and feel him holding me close. As an adult, even as a pastor I had lost that sense of intimacy with God and longed to rediscovery it. I knew He had not changed but I had somehow grown stagnant.

I turned to God's word and thought I would find no better place to learn than in the 11th chapter of Luke where the disciples came to the Lord seeking to know the same thing I was seeking, how to pray. What I found there was not just an admonition to prayer but actually an in depth how-to on prayer. I found a kind of blueprint in this Model Prayer, a blueprint I could use to then build my own house of prayer where I could dwell with God through prayer.

I placed myself at the feet of Jesus just as the disciples did and listened as Jesus taught. So, are you willing to learn from Jesus Himself? Willing to sit down at the feet of the Savior and listen with an open mind and open heart as the He reshapes your conceptions and deepens our relationship between God and his people through prayer? Are you ready to read the blueprint He left us and build your own house of prayer?