Day #2030

July 23, 2019

Tuesday’s Thoughts on Scripture comes from Luke 11:1: [Jesus] was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” (NRSV)

Prayer! Perhaps the backbone of being Christian and yet one of the hardest parts to understand. Is prayer simply conversation? Is it giving God a laundry-list of our needs, or the needs of someone we care about? Is prayer a little like magic? Should we pray more than once about the same thing? Do we need to? (Cindy used to say, I imagine God wonders about this Cindy person who keeps asking for the same thing over and over.) With all the questions, perhaps it is good to wonder, just what is prayer really about?

Obviously the disciples wondered. They wanted Jesus to teach them to pray - to maybe instruct them what to pray about and to give them guidelines regarding how often they should pray. The bottomline of the question could have been - is there a certain format that must be followed in order for prayers to be heard and answered.  

Therefore, when Jesus answered with what we now call the Lord’s Prayer, a format is more like what he had in mind. Really, the Lord’s Prayer should be less of a memorized prayer we say by rote and more of a reminder of who it is we are praying to and their kingdom. But there is also our daily life, our faults, and our need for protection from temptations. 

When it comes to prayer, I believe the question from the disciples is relevant for us, too. Not only for the Lord to teach us, but to keep us faithful in doing it. Therefore, prayers for us all! Amen.

Blessings.