Are you serious enough about your prayer?

Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” (Luke 11:1 ESV)

Jesus, as God was prayed to, yet as a man, he prayed. Rather than walking the earth as the self-sufficient titan of salvation, he walked the quiet path of prayer, often alone yet ever in the Father’s counsel. In fact Luke’s gospel displays this time and again, for instance: at his baptism he was praying (Luke 3:21), he withdrew into a desolate place to pray (Luke 5:16), he went to a mountain and prayed the night through (Luke 6:12), again he prayed alone (Luke 9:18), and upon another mountain journey he prayed and was transfigured (Luke 9:28, 29). He, like David, gave himself to prayer (Psalm 109:4).

Enticingly, when Jesus was here again praying, a disciple asked of him, “Lord, teach us to pray”. With Jesus, the man who is God, standing before him the man didn’t ask, “Lord, teach us to work miracles,” or, “Jesus, teach us to preach with authority!” Though these are certainly noble acts, they were not the chief acts of men and women who know God. Here we may glean that prayer is not simply an important part of Christian ministry and living, but it is the thing from which every other action must flow!

Jesus intimately knew the Father, and in so knowing continually spoke “just as the Father taught [him]” (John 8:28). He and the Father were and are still one (John 10:30), yet Jesus deemed prayer a worthy use of a night. Through this the disciples understood that prayer was more than an act of religion, but the very thing from which God empowers men to work his will.

Do you esteem prayer as you should, or is it just another thing to be checked from your daily “to do” list?