#1039. Let prayer begin and be sustained by praise (22/4/24)

This week, in our Luke series, we are reflecting on Jesus’ teaching on prayer from Luke 11:1-13. Today we consider the place of praise and worship in prayer.

Luke 11:1–13

‘One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”He said to them, “When you pray, say: “‘Father, hallowed be 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.”’ (Luke 11:1-4)

Luke 11:1–4

Lesson: Jesus teaches us to begin prayer with praise, and God has revealed Himself in His Word so we can accurately know and worship Him.

You can listen to this devotional at:

https://youtu.be/rCy6VBvzbI8

Jesus was devoted to prayer

Firstly, as we think about The Lord’s Prayer, let’s see that Jesus was devoted to prayer. In praying, Jesus is showing us how a perfect human is to live. He is fully God and fully man, and as a man he was prayerful. Prayer is the mark of true godliness and righteousness because prayer is about worshipping and depending on God. Jesus practiced what He preached and may we learn to do the same. If we trust in Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, let’s ensure that we are following His example and that our dependence and love for God is, like Jesus, expressed through time spent in prayer.

Let’s begin with praise and worship

Jesus teaches us to begin our prayers and worship with praise. Recently my wife and I flew to Hungary for a short holiday. If you’ve ever flown, you will have experienced that moment of great acceleration in order to reach the right speed for take-off. Oftentimes our personal and corporate prayer times can feel ‘grounded’ and lack faith because we have not given sufficient time to have our faith lifted through worship and praise. Jesus’ model of prayer begins with praise and a prayer that His ‘name’ (who He is) be ‘hallowed’ - be honoured as holy.

The church needs to continually be brought back to worship and jealously for God to be worshipped. Someone once said that The Lord’s Prayer is like a tuning fork; its various aspects retune us. If you play any stringed instrument, you will know that if the room temperature changes, the strings will need retuning. Likewise, the ‘temperature’ of our nation and culture, if unchecked, will detune us and lead us away from worship and toward self-worship and self-idolatry. For many, their happiness, their respect, their values… are the highest good; however, for Jesus followers, this prayer teaches us that that Worship is our highest calling.

Are we seeking to worship and are we praying that God be worshipped? When we pray personally or gather with the church is worship central? Terry Virgo wrote:

‘Believers gathering to pray need to begin by acknowledging the greatness of their God and their access to Him. It is not wise to begin a prayer meeting by completely focusing on the problem or challenges that we face. Like the early believers, we need a big view of God. Like Joshua before Jericho, we need to be more impressed and even overwhelmed by the majesty and omnipotence of the captain of the hosts of the Lord than by the height of Jericho’s walls (Joshua 5:14).’ (Terry Virgo. The Spirit-Filled Church)

Joshua 5:14

Worship out of the Bible

The Lord’s prayer begins by telling us about who God is, that He is ‘Father’ and that His name is to be ‘hallowed’. These two ideas are revolutionary and are to be used in our worship. However, we can use worship God out of any text of the Bible that we are reading. As we read the Bible, we ask, ‘What does this reveal about God? How can I worship Him out of this text?’ Tim Keller wrote of J. I. Packers approach to this:

‘Packer’s own practice [was] “reading Scripture, thinking through what my reading shows me of God, and turning that vision into praise before I go further [into prayer].” He adds that this is a vital means for “knowing God.”

Response

Jesus teaches us to begin prayer with praise, and God has revealed Himself in His Word so we can accurately know and worship Him. Are you and I devoted to worshipping God? Do we begin with worshipping the Father because we long for Him to be ‘hallowed’ in our own lives? Do you praise God by using His Word?