I wonder what the disciples were thinking? What were their motives? What were they really asking?
In Luke 11:1 we find Jesus praying and he had just finished. What were the disciples doing? Was Jesus praying quietly? Were the disciples sitting around listening? Or had Jesus gone off by himself and then came back to the disciples when he was done? What were they doing while he was praying? We don't know. We may never know.
We do know that when Jesus was finished praying the disciples asked him to do something for them. They wanted him to teach them to pray. Interesting. Why? They must have heard (or seen) that John had taught his disciples to pray. So they also wanted to learn. It would be fascinating to get my hands on a copy of John's teaching. I wonder what John included in his teaching on prayer. Would it be anything like what Jesus taught?
Whatever the case, Jesus taught them how to pray. The strange things is that they didn't ask Jesus to teach them a prayer - but HOW to pray. Fascinating isn't it, that we have taken that teaching and turned it into a prayer for us to repeat?
Communication is always far more than simply the words we utter. Yet, so often we get caught up in the words. If I am to pray in a group am I not more concerned about how I am praying and what people think of my prayer than in communicating with God? Maybe that's just me. I have to discipline myself to forget about what people think about the "words" I am using and focus on communicating with God.
After all, that is what prayer really is all about.
In Luke 11:1 we find Jesus praying and he had just finished. What were the disciples doing? Was Jesus praying quietly? Were the disciples sitting around listening? Or had Jesus gone off by himself and then came back to the disciples when he was done? What were they doing while he was praying? We don't know. We may never know.
We do know that when Jesus was finished praying the disciples asked him to do something for them. They wanted him to teach them to pray. Interesting. Why? They must have heard (or seen) that John had taught his disciples to pray. So they also wanted to learn. It would be fascinating to get my hands on a copy of John's teaching. I wonder what John included in his teaching on prayer. Would it be anything like what Jesus taught?
Whatever the case, Jesus taught them how to pray. The strange things is that they didn't ask Jesus to teach them a prayer - but HOW to pray. Fascinating isn't it, that we have taken that teaching and turned it into a prayer for us to repeat?
Communication is always far more than simply the words we utter. Yet, so often we get caught up in the words. If I am to pray in a group am I not more concerned about how I am praying and what people think of my prayer than in communicating with God? Maybe that's just me. I have to discipline myself to forget about what people think about the "words" I am using and focus on communicating with God.
After all, that is what prayer really is all about.
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