Day 4 – Daily Devotional – January 8, 2025 – “Teach Us To Pray”

READ 

Matt 6:6-8  But when you pray, go into your private room, shut your door, and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.  When you pray, don’t babble like the Gentiles, since they imagine they’ll be heard for their many words.  Don’t be like them, because your Father knows the things you need before you ask Him. 

EXAMINE 

Hello, Bethel   In Jesus’ day it was common practice for the religious leaders to make a show of praying. They would stand in the synagogues or in the streets and pray in public merely to be seen by people. Jesus refers to these people as hypocrites. The word ‘hypocrite’ comes from the Greek word which means ‘actor’. These people were merely acting – putting on a show. Instead, Jesus tells his disciples to pray in private where they cannot be seen. Why? Because the Father sees in secret. He is omnipresent – present everywhere always! That also means we can pray ANYWHERE we want. But even more than that, Jesus says that the Father will reward the honest prayers of his people. 

APPLY 

Learning to pray is difficult because it often seems meaningless. We’ve experienced this before…we finally set aside some time to pray, but after a few minutes we wonder if our prayers are really accomplishing anything. Our mind wanders. Crazy thoughts come to our minds. We get distracted. “Why bother,” we ask ourselves. In those moments, we must believe in faith that God sees and hears  our prayers. We don’t need to put on a show for Him to hear us. The truth is, God actually rewards our prayer, fledgling as they may be! Here’s another truth we also need to know: He doesn’t answer all our prayers exactly how we want. And we have to deal with that and trust Him!  So go ahead and enter into a conversation with God.  That’s what prayer is!  Here’s a tip to go with that: after you’re done talking, be still, and listen for His voice to talk to YOU.  Yes, God will talk to us…if we’ll listen.  Again, go ahead.  Pray privately wherever you want and pray publicly, like when we pray over our food at a restaurant.  The key is to begin somewhere in this effort and try to build on that.

PRAY 

Just like Christ’s disciples did, say this:  “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” Ask God to help you in your prayers. Spend some time reflecting on your own experience in prayer. If you feel you haven’t been more consistent in prayer, admit that and ask Him to help! Be honest. Start somewhere and don’t get hung up on using religious words.  Remember, it’s a conversation.  Be YOU!