11/1/09: Praying for all You are Worth

In Luke 11:1-13, Jesus conducts a short seminar on prayer especially as it has to do with God’s desire to hear from us and give us what we need. It all begins with the disciples observing Jesus in prayer and wanting to pray like Him (verse 1). Although the disciple expressed an interest in what to say to God, Jesus was already modeling the prayer life for him and the others. I have read the testimonies of prominent church leaders both past and present whose prayer life was greatly shaped by the example set by significant others in their life. When I was conversant with the literature on the psychology of learning much was made of the power of modeling behavior in instilling good habits and right attitudes (as well as “teaching” bad ones for that matter). This phenomenon was also called “vicarious learning.” Jesus’ disciples were already learning before Jesus even said anything, Our lord was generating in them the desire to pray more and to do it effectively. They were learning vicariously from Jesus their Master that prayer changes things and they wanted “a piece of the action.”

Having patiently modeled the prayer life before them, Jesus was ready to oblige his disciples when they finally exhibited a readiness to learn. He then gave them what has since been memorialized as “The Lord’s Prayer” (verses 2-5). In just a few lines Jesus packed more wallop on prayer than many volumes on the subject could do. I remember a Pastor of mine giving us about ten consecutive weeks of sermons on prayer using the Lord’s prayer or the “Our Father” as his outline. But for our purposes here I would like to move on to what Jesus said afterwards as recorded in Luke 11.

He asked his disciples to picture a man reluctantly having to get up in the middle of the night, wake up his family, and oblige his friend who needed three loaves of bread right away. His friend finally gets what he needs because he was pretty persistent and no doubt exhausted all his “IOU’s” accumulated over a long relationship with his reluctant “benefactor.” We need only one IOU and we didn’t earn it. Jesus did. The Lord values us so much that he is always willing to hear and respond to our petitions and have fellowship with us. He values us so much and his “office” is always open. His phone is never busy. I like what Bruce Larsen once wrote (Communicator’s Commentary, Luke, Word) to the effect that if the President was on the phone we would drop everything to pick up the call. The problem is, however, that we are prone to think that God is too far away and preoccupied with running the Universe so we don’t “dial his number” like we should. What grieves me most, however, is that God’s offer of the Holy Spirit doesn’t have many takers either these days. (See Luke 11:13). You are worth a lot to God. Are you praying for all you are worth?