Lesson 5: Lord, Teach Us to Pray, part 5
What do you think, my beloved fellow-disciples? Would it not 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 shall make progress. Let us take time not only to meditate, but to pray, to wait at the foot of the throne, and be trained to the work of intercession. Let us do so in the assurance that amidst our stammerings and fears He is carrying on His 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 of His intercession too. As the members of His body, as a holy priesthood, we shall take part in His priestly work of pleading and prevailing with God for men. Yes, let us most joyfully say, ignorant and feeble though we be, “Lord, teach us to pray.”
Prayer: Blessed Lord, who forever lives to pray, You can teach me too to pray, me to live ever to pray. In this You love to make me share Your glory in heaven, that I should pray without ceasing, and ever stand as a priest in the presence of my God.
Lord Jesus, I ask You this day to enroll my name among those who confess that they know not how to pray as they ought, and especially ask You for a course of teaching in prayer. Lord, teach me to wait with You in the school, and give You time to train me. May a deep sense of my ignorance, of the wonderful privilege and power of prayer, of the need of the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of prayer, lead me to cast away my thoughts of what I think I know, and make me kneel before You in true teachableness and poverty of spirit.
And fill me, Lord, with the confidence that with such a teacher as You are I shall learn to pray. In the assurance that I have as my teacher Jesus, who is ever praying to the Father, and by His prayer rules the destinies of His Church and the world, I will not be afraid. As much as I need to know of the mysteries of the prayer-world, You will unfold for me. And when I may not know, You will teach me to be strong in faith, giving glory to God.
Prayer: Blessed Lord, You will not put to shame Your scholar who trusts You, nor, by Your grace, would he You either.