Whitney Scarborough: a fresh look at Jesus' teaching on prayer

Whit's End: Real People, Hard Questions

In this episode, we look at Jesus' response to his disciples' request to teach them how to pray in Luke 11. We consider the parallel between prayer and family dinner, and ask how our thinking surrounding prayer might be off.

In my observation, we pray small, we pray seldom, we pray safe, and we pray selfish. Small prayers reflect a small view of God. Seldomly praying says we don’t think prayer matters. Safe prayers show that we feel best in the security of money, a steady job, comfort. Selfish prayers tell the true state of our hearts. Our faith might even feel less threatened when we pray small, safe, infrequent prayers because then we can’t be disappointed.

What then is God's heart for prayer? How have we misunderstood the gift that prayer is? If Jesus' example prayer was only 36 words, why do we think we have to impress him and those around us?

My hope with this episode is that it would reclaim and redeem our understanding of prayer. Today, we're going to look at the childlike nature of prayer as Christ taught on several occasions. In both Matthew 6 and Luke 11, Jesus reveals that prayer is simple and rich.

References:

• A Praying Life by Paul Miller

Show Notes:

• Luke 11:1-13
• Revelation 3:20