Teach Me to Pray...

Jesus says to believers and those we are called to love, “If you love me you will keep my commandments.” (Jn.14:15). And David says, “How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word.” (Ps.119:9). So how should we pray and teach our loved ones to pray? We must pray to God coming to him with our whole heart in love (Ps.119:10a) and praising his name (Ps.119:12a), but pleading with him that we may “not wander from (his) commandments”(Ps.119:10b), and asking him that he may “teach me (us) your statutes.” (Ps.119:12b).

We need to be taught by God who is infinite in wisdom and goodness, and we need to be shepherded in the way of what he teaches by God who is infinite in power and goodness. When you come to the Word of God or bring others to the Word of God ask God to teach you and keep you from wandering from his commands that yours and their way may be pure and full of love toward God. We need to be taught everything that he commands. We cannot presume to know or have understanding. We are foolish and ignorant, without understanding, and our understanding is turned upside down by our deceitful hearts. We must be taught and our minds must be renewed (Rom.12:2) so that we will know what the pleasure of God is and walk in union with Christ who came not to do his own will but the will of him who sent him. “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” (1Peter 2:24). We who are free from sin and death must “Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.” (1Pe.2:16). But to know how to live in this freedom and to be kept from wandering out of this freedom back into slavery we must be taught his will and kept from wandering out of the way of his commandments.

When we come to his Word we must pray and teach others to pray that he would teach us his pleasure and keep us from wandering from the way of his pleasure that he teaches.