One of the most memorable passages of scripture is found in Luke 11:1, where it 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.” 

Jesus was modelling prayer to the disciples by spending long hours in prayer. They saw that he had something they didn’t. They saw that Jesus had a connection with God, and they desired to have the same.

The interesting thing is that the disciples never said, “Lord, teach us to preach, or, Lord, teach us to heal, or, Lord, teach us to perform miracles.”

They said plain and simple, “Lord, teach us to pray. This suggests that the most important lesson that we can learn is how to pray.

Jesus’ disciples saw the need to pray. They saw what prayer meant to the life of Jesus, and they knew that the solution to every problem was prayer. They knew that the only way to build up Christian character was through prayer. They knew that for them to have power, they would need a powerful prayer life.

So they said, “Lord, teach us to pray.

Garden of Gethsemane

Just before His arrest, Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, and He said to His disciples, “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41).

The command came after Jesus had found the disciples sleeping instead of praying (verses 38–40). He had warned them that they needed to stay awake and pray with Him, but “their eyes were heavy” (verse 43), and they kept falling asleep. They slept right up until the time the armed mob came to take Jesus away (verses 45–47).

Unless we pray daily, we too will fall asleep, asleep to the effect our negative feelings and emotions are having on us. We want things to get better; we want our faith to be strengthened.

We have the best of intentions, but the temptation to worry, doubt and be fearful takes control. The temptation to be angry, to judge others, to hold onto unforgiveness, pain, and regrets, is just too much.

Our spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

Having More Faith

An essential part of faith is to realise that fear and faith cannot exist at the same time; it’s like a tossed coin; it’s either heads or tails its impossible to be both.

This is why Apostle Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 to ‘pray without ceasing.

Daily prayer means that fear doesn’t dominate your thought life, which means that you spend less time thinking about your problems and more time focusing on solutions.

So no matter what situation you find yourself in, PRAY. 

Prayer lifts you to highs that you cannot reach on your own—giving you strength, confidence, and faith—giving you the power to overcome all negativity.

If you are feeling anxious, confused or angry at this time, pray. With the weapon of prayer, you are capable of doing great things.

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