Teach Me to Pray Lord

Teach me to pray, Lord, teach me to pray;
This is my heart-cry day unto day;
I long to know Thy will and Thy way;
Teach me to pray, Lord, teach me to pray.

Chorus
Living in Thee, Lord, and Thou in me,
Constant abiding, this is my plea;
Grant me Thy power, boundless and free,
Power with men and power with Thee.

Power in prayer, Lord, power in prayer!
Here ‘mid earth’s sin and sorrow and care,
Men lost and dying, souls in despair;
O give me power, power in prayer!

My weakened will, Lord, Thou canst renew;
My sinful nature Thou canst subdue;
Fill me just now with power anew;
Power to pray and power to do!

Teach me to pray, Lord, teach me to pray;
Thou art my pattern day unto day;
Thou art my surety, now and for aye;
Teach me to pray, Lord, teach me to pray.

Being that tomorrow is the National Day of Prayer, I thought it would be great to do a Hymn focused on Prayer. I found this hymn in Ken Osbeck’s hymn devotion book, Amazing Grace, and thought this would be a great hymn for this week. The theme of this hymn comes from the passage of Scripture found in Luke 11. One of the disciples comes to Jesus while He was praying and said “…Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.”  I find it interesting that there are things that we have to be taught how to do, and things we don’t need any “schooling” in.  We don’t have to learn how to lie.  It unfortunately comes naturally.  We don’t have to learn how to be selfish.  That too comes naturally.  But we have to be taught so many other things in life.  We have to learn kindness, respect, and how to clean up after ourselves.  We have to be taught how to tie our shoes, read, write, and drive a car.  These things don’t come naturally

Prayer does not come naturally either. It takes practice, time, effort, and a willingness to learn how to pray.  Prayer is something that we not only need to learn how to do, but we always can strive to do a better job at, even after we have learned how to pray.  As many in our country gather tomorrow around flagpoles and government buildings and churches, I would encourage you to pray for our nation.  To pray for our leaders.  To pray our pastors and churches.  And to pray for God to send revival to America.

Couple of comments on the lyrics:

• “Here ‘mid earth’s sin and sorrow and care” – Can prayer really remove one out of earth’s sin and sorrow and care? Can we, by spending time with the Lord, forget about the things of this world that cause us worry, and sorrow and care? I believe we can.  Spending time with the Lord can be a time of refuge.  A time where we commune with Him, listen to Him, and let Him guard our heart and our mind.  We can live in the middle of trouble and care, and be shielded from their impact through the power of prayer.

• “My sinful nature Thou canst subdue” – To subdue something means “to conquer and bring into subjection” or “to overpower by superior force; overcome.”  The Bible says that we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.  The Bible says we don’t have to be overcome with evil, but that we can overcome evil with good.  The Bible says that the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in us. The Lord can subdue our sinful nature by the power of the Holy Spirit living in us, and by the strength we receive by His Word and through prayer.

I hate to admit this, but I probably am one of the few men you know that have worked in a fabric store.  Yes, I worked as a clean-up boy at Hancock Fabrics in Oklahoma City when I was a teenager.  My mom worked there, and got me the job.  (I think she was trying to help me find a girlfriend, but it didn’t work).  My mom would not consider herself a seamstress, but she has always liked to sew.  If she had had a little girl (instead of four ornery boys), Heather Diane would have been her name, and I am sure my Mom would have made her pretty little dresses for Church. My Mom used to buy fabric patterns at Hancock’s or at Walmart when I was a kid.  Patterns were thin pieces of paper that came in an envelope with a picture of the dress on the outside.  I never really fully understood how a sewing machine worked (and still really don’t understand it), but I figured out what the dress patterns were for. The patterns were used as templates to make cutting the material easier, and they were a guide as to how to put the dress together.

This author of this hymn wrote “Thou are my pattern day unto day.”  So let me ask you, is Jesus your pattern for prayer?  Do you pray like Jesus prayed?  Some words that would describe Jesus’ prayer life would be regular, fervent, powerful, alone, honest, forgiving and persistent.  Is Jesus your guide for how you live your life?  Are the things that were important to Him, also important to you?  Is the Lord’s Prayer a template for you to follow in prayer – Praise and an acknowledgement of who God is, a prayer for His will to be done in your life, a prayer for daily provision, and prayer for forgiveness and protection from the enemy?  Or are you like me, sometimes asking God to align His will with mine? or asking God for more and more blessings in my life?

My prayer for myself today is this hymn – “Lord, teach me to pray.”  I hope you too can pray this prayer as you pray for our nation. We desperately need more people who know how to pray in our community, our country and in our world.