The Only Teacher # 3

He (Christ) knows how to teach, whether it is by the urgency of felt need, by the confidence that joy inspires, by the studying of the Word, or by the testimony of another believer who knows what it is to have prayer heard. By His Holy Spirit He has access to our hearts and teaches us to pray by showing us the sin that hinders the prayer, or by giving us the assurance that we  please God. He teaches by giving not only thought of what to ask or how to ask, but by breathing into us the very spirit of prayer and living within us as the Great Intercessor. We can most joyfully say, “Who teaches like Him?” Jesus never taught His disciples how to preach, only how to pray. To know how to speak to God is more than knowing how to speak to man. Power with God is the first thing, not power with men. Jesus loves to teach us how to pray.

What do you think my beloved fellow-disciples? Wouldn’t it be just what we need to ask the Master for a month to give us a course of special lessons on the art of prayer? As we meditate on the words He spoke on earth, let us yield ourselves to His teaching in the fullest confidence that with such a Teacher, we will make progress. Let us take time not only to meditate, but to pray, to sit at the foot of the throne and be trained for the work of intercession. Let us do so in the assurance that despite our stammerings and fears, He is carrying on His own work most beautifully. He will breathe His own life, which is all prayer, into us. As He makes us partakers of His righteousness and His life, He will make us partakers of His intercession, too. As the members of His Body – as a holy priesthood – will take part in His priestly work of praying to and getting results from God for mankind. Yes, even though we are unknowing and weak, let us most joyfully say, “Lord, teach us to pray!”

Blessed Lord! You live eternally to pray, and can teach me, too, to live eternally to pray! You want me to share Your glory in heaven by sharing this unceasing prayer with You, standing as a priest in the presence of my God.

Lord Jesus! Enroll my name among those who confess that they don’t know how to pray as they should, and who especially ask You for a course of teaching of teaching in prayer. Lord! Teach me to be patient in Your school, so that You will have time to train me. I am ignorant of the wonderful privilege and power of prayer, of the need the Holy Spirit to be the spirit of prayer. Lead me to forget my thoughts of what I think I know, and make me kneel before You in true teachableness and poverty of spirit.

Fill me, Lord, with the confidence that with You for my Teacher, I will learn to pray. Then I will not be afraid, because my Teacher prays continuously to the Father, and by His prayer rules the destinies of His Church and the world. Unfold for me everything I need to know about the mysteries of the prayer-world. When there is something I may not know, teach me to be strong in faith, giving glory to God.

Blessed Lord! I know that You won’t put that student to shame who trusts You. And, with Your grace, that student won’t shame You, either. Amen

~Andrew Murray~