The Prayer Jesus Taught Us

In Luke 11:1 we read, “One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”  The disciples would have grown up praying regularly, this was not a new thing…but the way Jesus prayed made them realise it was as if they had not even begun to start.

 Many of us continue to struggle in prayer and can often overcomplicate it.  In Matthew 6:5-9 Jesus said:

 5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

9 “This, then, is how you should pray…

What follows in Matthew 6 and Luke 11 are the words that form the “Our Father”, the prayer that Jesus taught his followers.

The following posts will take one part of the Lord’s Prayer, adapted from material done for Redeemer Church, Plymouth, ahead of some Gift Days. May it be rich theologically, and helpful devotionally, in your prayer life.