Teach Us to Pray
by Brad Spangler
If you were to ask most Christians, “Is prayer important?” The answer you would most likely get would be, “yes, of course, it is.” Prayer is a spiritual practice that even transcends the Christian faith. Every world religion sets a high value on prayer. Through prayer, we can communicate with the God who spoke the universe into existence. That’s amazing if you think about it!
Talking about prayer, A.W. Tozer said, “Remember that without prayer, you can not win; And with it, you can not lose.” Billy Graham, one of the most influential evangelists of the twentieth century, said, “True prayer is a way of life, not just for use in cases of emergency. Make it a habit, and you will be in practice when the need arises.” If we know that prayer is important, why don’t we do it more often? Why does prayer seem so difficult at times?
I think the problem for many people is that they simply don’t know how to pray or where to start. I remember early in my Christian walk feeling this way, but then by the grace of God, I received the opportunity to learn from a small group of amazing women of God. One, in particular, became like a spiritual mother to me. So for many months, I began to spend my Friday evenings observing and learning how to pray.
Then after going to RHEMA Bible Training College in Tulsa, OK, I made it a point to serve and sit in prayer school for multiple years. This experience continued to build on the foundation that was laid previously in my life. So I am genuinely grateful for the opportunities I was afforded to learn how to pray.
Now, maybe you haven’t been to Bible school or have had the chance to learn from a group of intercessors. The question is then, “Can you still learn how to pray?” I believe the answer is absolutely, “yes!” In fact, you can actually have Jesus, the Master himself, teach you how to pray.
So let’s read from Luke chapter 11, verses 1-4 NKJV.
“Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.” So He said to them, “When you pray, say: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one.”
From this passage of scripture we get an inside look into how Jesus taught his followers to pray. He actually gave us a template that can be used as a launching pad for anyone who wants to learn how to pray. Over the next six weeks my goal is to help breakdown this template so you can use it in your own life, and fortunately it is easy to remember because each category begins with the letter “P”.
- Personal
- Praise
- Participation
- Petition
- Pardon
- Protection