The Lord's Prayer: Effective Prayer
"Lord, teach us to pray." —Luke 11:1 There are volumes upon volumes of books on prayer. There is no shortage of opinions on “the right way” to pray. Many minister’s devote their entire life to teaching on prayer, some with orthodox thought and good intentions, other’s with neither. How then, are we to wade through the glut of information to find the true gems? How do we condense all of the many thoughts on prayer into small manageable bites? The disciples were good Jewish boys. They grew up attending synagogue. They heard at least as many sermons as you or I; they heard at least as many prayers. They knew how to pray, they had seen it modeled countless times. What they had never seen was effective prayer. Jesus often went away to a “solitary place” to pray. Each time when he returned, they saw him either teach with an authority they’d never before experienced, or heal the sick, or raise the dead, or feed thousands of people with minimal resources. When Jesus prayed, amazing