How to Pray
Devotional
Most of us don’t really enjoy prayer. We feel bad or guilty about how little we pray. When we finally make time to pray, we either don’t know what to say or are too distracted to focus. In Luke 11, it seemed like Jesus’ disciples noticed how important prayer was to Jesus, so they asked Him to teach them how to pray. And what did Jesus do? Rather than giving them a sermon on prayer or a theology about God, He prayed. Then and there, Jesus prayed with them. In this teaching, we all are invited to pray as Jesus did.
Most of us don’t really enjoy prayer. We feel bad or guilty about how little we pray. When we finally make time to pray, we either don’t know what to say or are too distracted to focus. In Luke 11, it seemed like Jesus’ disciples noticed how important prayer was to Jesus, so they asked Him to teach them how to pray. And what did Jesus do? Rather than giving them a sermon on prayer or a theology about God, He prayed. Then and there, Jesus prayed with them. In this teaching, we all are invited to pray as Jesus did.
LUKE 11:1-4
Questions:
- What do you take away from Jesus’ prayer in this passage?
- What do you take away from Jesus’ prayer in this passage?
- How would you define prayer? And do you think prayer is important? Why or why not?
- What are some distractions from prayer?
- What has your experience with prayer been like?
- In this season of your life, how can you improve in the area of prayer?
Practice The Way of Jesus:
The practice for the week ahead is to be devoted to prayer (Colossians 4:2). Take some time to develop a rhythm for yourprayer life. If you wanted to pray for a particular person in your life each day, maybe write their name on a sticky note and put it on your bathroom mirror. If you want to start your day with prayer, perhaps put your Bible on top of your phone when you go to bed as a reminder. If you want to pray with your roommates or family, have a conversation with them to see if it’s something they are interested in and then make a plan. If you want to do a midday prayer, block it out in your calendar each day. Whatever it looks like, take a practical step towards your goal this week.