Luke 11:1 (ESV) Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.”
Jesus showed his disciples how to grow spiritually by example. The book of Luke tells of Jesus praying by himself and in public many times. Jesus, the son of God, spent time daily talking to His father in prayer. The disciples of seeing Jesus pray daily wanted to learn how to pray for themselves.
Luke 11:2 (ESV) And he said to them, “When you pray, say: “Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come.
The prayer that Jesus taught is often referred to as the Lord’s prayer. It was not meant to be prayed and repeated over and over again. The Lord’s prayer was meant to teach some of the basic principles of prayer. Prayer should begin with a focus on your relationship with the Father. In the Bible, prayer is directed to the Father and prayed in Jesus’ name.
Not only is prayer to be addressed to the Father, it is first and foremost about the Father. We pray for the Father’s name to be honored and for His kingdom to come. These first two requests help us to focus on honoring the Father and seeking His kingdom first.
Luke 11:3 (ESV) Give us each day our daily bread,
This prayer teaches us that prayer should be done on a daily basis. Further teaching by the apostle Paul encourages us to pray continually, throughout the day. We are to pray for God to give us our daily bread. Daily bread refers to all of our needs in life. We pray for and trust God to meet those needs as we follow Him.
Luke 11:4 (ESV) and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.”
Daily we should repent and confess our sins. Daily, we should forgive any who have sinned against us. To not forgive others who have hurt us is not an option for a follower of Jesus. Finally, the request is that we are not led into temptation. This final request is that God would protect us from yielding to temptation and sinning. If we’ve just asked forgiveness for the sins of yesterday, we need to be prepared not to fall into the same sin today. The second secret of spiritual growth is to pray to the Father daily.
Since prayer is so important, the devil does everything he can to get you to stop. If he can’t get you to stop altogether, he’ll get you to doubt that prayer even works. Once you start doubting that prayer works, it’s going to get harder and harder to pray.
Remember what Mary did, sitting at the feet of Jesus. We need to see our daily time of prayer in the same way. Simply taking time apart from our busy lives and sitting at Jesus feet. Rather than reciting a list of your needs and desires to the Father, just be still and listen. In your prayer time, listen to what the Father wants to tell you. Then respond to Him with your love and worship. By then your faith will be strong enough to trust God to meet your needs and the needs of those around you. The second secret for spiritual growth is to pray daily with the Father.