Learning to Pray as a Church

One of the six statements that define the core values of Astoria Community Church is: “Prayer honors God, and God honors prayer.” Prayer is one of our core values because we know that in order to be a vibrant spiritual presence in Western Queens we absolutely must be a church that truly prays.

But how do we learn to do this? In Luke 11, the disciples approached Jesus after he finished praying to ask him to teach them to pray, too. The text says:

He said to them, “When you pray, say: ‘Father, hallowed by your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.’”

Many volumes have been written on the answer Jesus gave. Of course, in a short article like this we cannot examine his words in depth. But let me just point out three very simple things we discover here about learning to pray.

1) You learn to pray by praying.

When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, he did not give them a book to read, or a video to watch, or a lecture on which to take notes. What did he give them? He gave them a prayer to pray. He said, “When you pray, say this …” In other words, according to Jesus, the best way to learn to pray is to start praying.

For many of us this is an important word of advice. Many Christians seem to lack purpose, power and joy. Many believers feel trapped in cycles of self-pity or sin. Often this is caused by a shortage of prayer. The Bible says, “You do not have, because you do not ask God.” (James 4:2b)

The wonderful news for those who trust in Jesus is that, through his death and resurrection, Christ has forever opened the door for us to approach God in prayer. He gave himself for us on the cross. He stands before the Father in our behalf. “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16) You learn to pray by praying. Because of what Christ has done, there is no reason why you cannot start praying right now.

2) You learn to pray by praying regularly.

A second lesson we learn from Christ’s words in Luke 11 is that prayer is to meant be an on-going part of daily Christian life. He gave us a model prayer that serves as a pattern for how we are to approach God.

The second sentence of this model prayer gives us an idea of how frequently we are to pray. “Give us each day our daily bread.” We are not to ask for a weekly shipment. We are not to order a monthly supply. Christ’s intention is that we ask God to meet our needs every day.

The reason for this is not because God has a short memory and needs frequent reminders. Nor was Christ’s intention merely to burden our schedules with one more thing to do. The reason God wants us to pray regularly is rooted in the whole purpose for which Christ came to earth. He did not die on the cross just so that the world could have another religion. (We already had plenty of those). Jesus saved his people so that we might have personal communion with God. In Christ we are restored to the purpose for which God made us, to glorify him and enjoy him forever. One of the ways this is expressed is through frequent, on-going prayer.

3) You learn to pray by praying regularly with others.

The prayer Jesus taught us is packed with 1st person plural pronouns: we, us, our. The words I, me and mine are nowhere to be found. Why? Because in uniting us with Christ, God makes us members of a new community, the church.

Though certainly we can (and should) pray alone, prayer is most powerful when done in a group. Jesus said: “If two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I with them.” (Mt. 18:19-20)

The book of Acts is a record of the life of the early church. It is filled with accounts of powerful prayer meetings. After one such meeting it says, “And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken.” (Acts 4:31)

When people understand what God has done for them in Christ, they long to gather with others to pray. Fellowship groups and other gatherings at ACC provide great opportunities to do this. Why not give it a try?