There is no one who does not know how to pray. Everyone has done it. But we can all do it better. – In Luke’s gospel, right after he wrote the account of Jesus at the home of Martha and Mary, he went on to tell about a time when Jesus’ disciples came to him and asked him to teach them to pray. This request did not come because his disciples did not know how to pray, they had grown up in good Jewish homes. They had all gone through bar mitzvah. They attended their local synagogue. But they recognized the prayers of Jesus were effective to the point of being life transforming and they wanted what they witnessed. – Chapter eleven of Luke’s gospel contains some of what Jesus taught his disciples in answer to their request.
Jesus reminded his disciples that God’s house is a house of prayer
(Luke 19:46 from Isaiah 56:7). God’s house, of course, is not a building
any more than “the house of Abraham” or “the house of Jacob” was
a building. In this context, “house” is people. The house of God
is the people of God. The people of God are called by God to be a people of
prayer. – The early Church took this call to heart and they began to transform
the world they lived in as a result (the book of Acts). – If today’s
church is going to be the transforming agent she is commissioned by God to be
then she must be the House of Prayer God has called her to be. The Church today
needs to be taught to pray.
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