Lord, Teach Us to Pray (Even with an iPad)

By Dean Collins

Bob Dylan was right; the times are a changing. Changing in ways that sometimes make it hard to keep up with the conveniences at our fingertips. There is nearly a one hundred percent chance you are reading this devotion on a device. I write it on my iPad, generous friends and colleagues edit and format it on their computers, and it is sent to you and posted by technology. Unless you print it out or happen to see the weekly edition of the devotion in our small-town newspaper, no one’s hands ever touch it.

 Reading the teachings of Jesus on prayer in Luke 11 got me to thinking about this. After Jesus answered the disciples’ request to teach them how to pray, Jesus recited much of what we refer to as the Lord’s Prayer. But then he told a parable about man who had unexpected guests in the middle of the night and did not have any bread to offer them to eat. This would be a very unusual problem for us to manage with all of our technologies and services available at our fingertips.

First, we have refrigerators which usually have the basics. And of course, there is your pantry where you probably have supplies you will never use before they expire. (Unless you have teenagers!) Then I checked delivery services. According to ChatGPT, in many cities there are popular fast food restaurants and convenience stores who will deliver sometimes as late as 2 a.m.! 

We might have trouble relating to this parable with so much available to us at nearly every moment. If our neighbors need something, they should just get out a device and order it. Why bother us in the middle of the night? Is the modern-day example that the neighbor doesn’t have WiFi, so they keep calling us until we order something to be sent to their house? I am pretty sure the main point of this parable isn’t really about middle of the night snacks or making sure you have breakfast ready when your unexpected guests wake up.

 We often attempt to force understanding or a specific action that is expected from scripture and from parables. The entire eleventh chapter of Luke is a response to one of the disciples making this request of Jesus: “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.”  

The odd thing is that there are no passages of scripture where we can learn what John the Baptist said or did in teaching his disciples to pray. Who knows, maybe one of Jesus’ disciples saw or heard one of John’s disciples and assumed he must have taken an advanced prayer seminar from John the Baptist. Hopefully John didn’t instruct his disciples on dressing for success based on what we read of his wardrobe!

The disciples had watched Jesus go off by himself to pray. They had seen him wander off in the morning, evening, and before and after teaching moments and wanted to know more of his methods. And like us, we often think when we observe another person that maybe they have a better formula or suggestion for prayer because we often stumble along not sure of whether we are doing prayer right because we don’t see the results we want. 

Isn’t that one of our problems, results? We tend to measure everything, so if we aren’t seeing the specific answers at our defined times, we think that we might not be ordering our prayer properly or have the wording incorrect.

Jesus cuts through all of this and sends a clear message; the Father is always available, and he knows how to give us what we need. He is never confused by the structure of our prayer. What he wants is to hear from his children and for them to trust him to always be working his perfect plans in our lives.  

Father, today we desire to walk and work in alignment with your will and plans for us. We know that you are our source of life, provision, and joy. Today we ask you to meet our needs according to your perfect will. We pray for your wisdom to guidance as we seek, ask, and knock on the doors you lead us to. Thank you for the Holy Spirit who searches hearts and knows what is of your Spirit and intercedes for us according to your will. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Your Time with God’s Word
Luke 11:1-13 ESV

To receive daily posts delivered directly to your inbox, complete the form at the bottom of our home page.