Today’s Christians don’t pray. Most people look for others to pray for them, most spend a few minutes in between two activities and call it their prayer time. My brother, my sister, if Jesus took the time to teach His disciples how to pray… and if Jesus Himself spent time, proper time in prayer, how do we imagine we can survive in this fallen world without indulging ourselves in proper prayer?
Today…‘s passage says: “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.'” 2 He said to them, “When you pray, say…” (verses 1-2). After teaching them how to pray, He used a parable to explain to them what prayer is supposed to produce (verses 5-8) making us understand that before praying to God, we need to ensure that we have a friendship (friendly) relationship with Him. And maybe that’s where many unanswered prayers find their root: sometimes, we approach the Lord without being His friend; just because we want Him to give us something. How many people become fervent when they are in need, then their boldness disappear once they have been answered.
Unfortunately, earthly life is made of constant ups and downs, and another need might lead us to seek the Lord again after we have turned away from Him in times of good. But He knows us, and He knows if we are truly His friends or not… The fact is, God’s provision is daily, not all at once. We cannot store it up and then cut off communication with God. Therefore, we need to ask ourselves this question whenever we are running low on strength or when nothing seems to move forward in our lives: ‘how long have I been away from the Source’ of everything I need? Why? Because God does not move away from us who are in Christ: He seated us with Christ at His right hand… but we sometimes move away from this place of privilege to try and sort ourselves out by our own means. The Bible says Jesus is sitting at the right hand of God, praying for us day and night! That’s why He taught us how to pray: so that we may do like Him, day and night. Stay blessed in Jesus’ name.