Prayer
“And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray,”—Luke 11:1
THE Lord’s Prayer is not a form, but a model which our Lord gave to his disciples. It is a prayer of the kingdom; a prayer suited to the disciples at that time, when the Lord was preaching the kingdom as “at hand,” and not the gospel of the grace of God, which tells of a crucified Christ and pardon for sin through him. Its abiding value lies in the fact that it is a model and not a form. One of our Lord’s disciples, evidently speaking for all of them, had said,
“Lord, teach us to pray,”—Luke 11:1
and the Lord’s Prayer is part of his answer. Notice, first of all, the singularity of this disciple’s petition. These men were Jews, and as Jews had been brought up to pray. They had always prayed. Furthermore, they had been, many of them, John’s disciples, and one of the things, it appears, that John taught his disciples was to pray. But here there is a desire unsatisfied. These disciples, who were brought up to pray and who had been in a kind of preliminary school of prayer, still felt that they did not know how to pray. It is a good sign when a Christian can no longer be satisfied with religious forms; he is ready for realities. There is a tremendous contrast between praying and saying prayers.
The first testimony which God ever bore to the apostle Paul after his conversion was:
“behold, he prayeth,”—Acts 9:11
Why, Paul was not only an intensely religious man, but an Oriental. All Orientals pray. In that land today a muezzin from the minaret of the mosque calls the faithful to prayer. “Come to prayer; prayer is good; prayer is good; come to prayer.” Wherever a Mohammedan is, he spreads his prayer-carpet;—it may be in the street, but he kneels, and turns his face toward Mecca and prays,—prays until the perspiration pours from his face, all unconscious of
