LORD, TEACH US TO PRAY

 

Lord, teach us to pray.
Luke 11:1

 
REAL prayer is always powerful.
 
Energetic prayer is availeth much.
 
But we often seem to pray when we do not.
 
There is no clear knowledge of want,
  no fervent desire,
  no earnest pleading,
  no strong confidence in God,
  no steady expectation,
  no wishful watchings,
  no patient waiting.
 
And yet all these are included in prevailing prayer.
 
Beloved, we must acknowledge with the Apostle,
  “We know not what we should pray for as we ought.”
 
Let us therefore plead with the disciples,
   “Lord, teach us to pray.”
 
But if we are answered,
  perhaps wants will press us,
  trials will surround us,
  foes will beset us,
  afflictions will come upon us, and
  Satan will worry and distress us;
  for it is by suck things that the Lord
    teaches his people to pray.
 
If he teach us,
  he will certainly give his Holy Spirit unto us;
  for there is no real prayer without the indwelling,
   illumination, and direct operation of the Holy Spirit.
 
He awakens us to feel our need,
  quickens desire,
  leads to the throne,
  helps our infirmities, and
  causes us to groan in the spirit before God.
 

Teach me, Jesus, how to pray,

Take the hindering thing away;

Into this weak heart inspire

Power, and hunger, and desire;

Then the pleading Spirit impart,

Fix my Teacher in my heart.

 
James Smith 1849