So, if they knew how to pray, what were they asking Jesus to teach them? They wanted to know how to pray like their Savior! When they compared their lives of prayer to the Savior’s, they instantly recognized that theirs paled in comparison. Like Jesus, it was their custom to go to the synagogue on the weekly Sabbath, so they could hear the Word of God and practice fellowship of prayer with their fellow Jews. They had undoubtedly grown up in mostly faithful Jewish families and had learned from their fathers and mothers how to pray. It wasn’t as if Jesus’ disciples didn’t know how to pray. Luke also tells us that once, when “Jesus was praying in a certain place,” one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1). Simply put, Jesus prayed frequently and with great earnestness. We’re told how “being in anguish, prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground” (Luke 22:44). ![]() ![]() He’s the one, for instance, who describes most powerfully the intensity of Jesus’ prayers to his heavenly Father on the night before he died. Luke emphasizes more than any other gospel writer how much time our Savior spent in prayer. Luke tells us in his gospel that “Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed” (Luke 5:16). How much prayer is too much prayer? If Jesus is our measuring stick, then none of us is in danger of praying too much.
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