Devotional Gems by Jolene
Created for Bible Study for Kids
Relationship With God
Part 1 of 8
Luke 11:2-4
By J.D. Griffith
Benjy was angry. "I prayed and prayed for a new bike, and my Birthday
has passed!" He stomped his feet and slammed the door. His big brother
overheard Benjy's complaint, and went outside to calm down his little
brother.
"Benjy, let's talk about how you pray. Maybe you're doing something
wrong."
"How can you pray the wrong way?" Benjy asked his big brother.
"It's easy when you don't follow the prayer plan." Was the answer.
Benjy shook his head, he'd never heard about a plan to pray. Have you?
Our biggest mistake is to think we can take God on our terms. This shows
up in our prayer life. Relatively few people pray to God on His terms.
God wants a relationship with His children, and prayer
is how we achieve that relationship.
In Jesus’ life, prayer was His motivation, and His ministry was the
prize. Being separated from the Father was only tolerable because Father
and Son reconnected through prayer. God the Father wants that same
relationship with us—that same kind of connectedness. Jesus’ ministry
was a marathon, and He showed us how to complete the race and attain our
own gold medal.
The
disciples came to understand how important prayer was to Jesus, and said,
”Lord, teach us to pray--as John also taught his disciples.” (Luke 11:1).
John the Baptist had a whole curriculum for teaching his disciples, and he
focused on teaching them how to pray.
After more than two years of following Jesus, His disciples wanted that
same lesson. They had front row seats to hear Him preach. They were right
beside Him when He performed miracles. Now they wanted to learn the nuts and
bolts of His ministry: prayer.
Don’t we usually ask an expert to teach us something? Because prayer was the
core of Jesus’ ministry, they asked Him to teach them. Jesus wanted prayer
to be vital in their ministries, too.
Can you see His warm smile when they approached Him with this request?
Immediately He taught them what we call “The Lord’s Prayer.”
This is a misnomer—something called a wrong name. Jesus couldn’t say this
prayer Himself because He was without sin. He could not say, “Forgive us our
sins” for example. But, he taught it to them. Now it is called “The Lord’s
Prayer” because He was the author. It is really an outline, or blueprint for
us to follow in building our own prayers.
Take Home Nugget
Learning how to pray will carry a child into old age and usher that person
into heaven. The following devotions will address the individual phrases of
a well-known prayer that can be an outline for every prayer. Could there be
anything more valuable in your life than learning to develop a relationship
with the Father like Jesus had?
It would be great to learn how to pray,
But words don’t come easily.
Teach me, Lord, my heart to stay
In a place where we can grow intimately.
J.D. Griffith
