Hooking up to God (Part 1 of 8)

HOOKING UP TO GOD

Forming a Relationship with GOD Part 1 of 8
Luke 11:2

"And He said to them, 'When you pray, say, Father, hallowed be Your name...'"

Benjy was angry. "I prayed and prayed for a new bike, and my Birthday has passed!" He stomped his feet and slammed the door. His big brother overheard Benjy's complaint, and went outside to calm down his little brother.

"Benjy, let's talk about how you pray. Maybe you're doing something wrong."

"How can you pray the wrong way?" Benjy asked his big brother.

"It's easy when you don't follow the prayer plan." Was the answer.

Benjy shook his head, he'd never heard about a plan to pray. Have you?

Our biggest mistake is to think we can take God on our terms. This shows up in our prayer life.

Relatively few people pray to God on His terms. God wants a relationship with His children, and prayer is how we achieve that relationship.

In Jesus’ life, prayer was His motivation, and His ministry was the prize. Being separated from the Father was only tolerable because Father and Son reconnected through prayer. God the Father wants that same relationship with us—that same kind of connectedness. Jesus’ ministry was a marathon, and He showed us how to complete the race and attain our own gold medal.

The disciples came to understand how important prayer was to Jesus, and said, ”Lord, teach us to pray--as John also taught his disciples.” (Luke 11:1). John the Baptist had a whole curriculum for teaching his disciples, and he focused on teaching them how to pray.

After more than two years of following Jesus, His disciples wanted that same lesson. They had front row seats to hear Him preach. They were right beside Him when He performed miracles. Now they wanted to learn the nuts and bolts of His ministry: prayer.

Don’t we usually ask an expert to teach us something? Because prayer was the core of Jesus’ ministry, they asked Him to teach them. Jesus wanted prayer to be vital in their ministries, too.

Can you see His warm smile when they approached Him with this request? Immediately He taught them what we call “The Lord’s Prayer.”

This is a misnomer—something called a wrong name. Jesus couldn’t say this prayer Himself because He was without sin. He could not say, “Forgive us our sins” for example. But, he taught it to them. Now it is called “The Lord’s Prayer” because He was the author. It is really an outline, or blueprint for us to follow in building our own prayers.

Take Home Nugget
Learning how to pray will carry a child into old age and usher that person into heaven. The following devotions will address the individual phrases of a well-known prayer that can be an outline for every prayer. Could there be anything more valuable in your life than learning to develop a relationship with the Father like Jesus had?

It would be great to learn how to pray,
But words don’t come easily.
Teach me, Lord, my heart to stay
In a place where we can grow intimately.

J.D. Griffith

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