"Lord, teach us to pray.” These words spoken by the disciples to the Lord Jesus Christ are revealing. It was customary in those days for rabbis to teach their disciples this important discipline. Yet there is more to this request than rabbinical custom. The disciples had heard Jesus pray various times; surely they were impressed and moved by the intimate bond with God that Jesus’ prayers revealed, among other things in calling upon Him as Father.

Prayer is both the greatest privilege and greatest burden of every true Christian. It is a privilege because we can point to various times in our lives when prayer has been one of our greatest delights. You pour out your heart to God when burdened with sin, suffering, or need, and sense a living connection with Him. You want to say at such times like Jacob at Peniel, “This is the house of God, the gate of heaven.”

Other times you pray out of a sense of custom and obligation, and your prayers seem like empty repetitions and cold husks nearly devoid of life. You know something is wrong but are not quite sure what to do about it. If your prayers make you sigh, what effect do they have on God, you wonder. One reason we find prayer so difficult is that we tend to use the identical words to pray for the same things. Certainly there are always some new things to bring to the Lord, such as the crisis of the moment in the church or family. But most of our prayers are about the same things. It quickly seems boring and unspiritual.

There is also the sneaking suspicion of unbelief in our hearts that wonders if prayer really accomplishes all that much. Remember the prayer meeting asking the Lord to free the apostle Peter from prison the night before his scheduled execution? When informed he was standing at the door, they said to the servant girl Rhoda, “You are mad” (Acts 12:15). One skeptic put it like this: if God is really big enough to hear prayer, He is also wise enough to ignore it.

In light of these difficulties and struggles, it is important to realize that why we pray is the key to knowing how to pray. Why pray? The answer is simple, and yet profound and encouraging. As a father, I already know what my wife and children have planned for the day. Yet when I come home, I still ask what they did that day. I still listen to the childlike babbling of my toddlers with interest and delight. Just a few days ago, I took one of my toddlers on a bike ride in the Netherlands. She pointed out every bird and animal she saw. I reacted with enthusiasm and enjoyed the interaction with my daughter. A father loves to interact with his children.

God becomes your Father through faith in Christ and the adoption of His grace. Even when you feel cold or distant, God is the perfect Father who loves living interaction with His children. As earthly fathers, we become impatient, weary, or distracted. God the Father never suffers from such weakness. Through Christ the Mediator, He also purifies our prayers so that they all rise accepted before Him like incense, even when we are most burdened by our coldness of weakness. Reminding yourself of this is the key to prayer.

God has also given wonderful helps in how to pray. Have you ever wondered how someone could pray for hours in a day? You feel unspiritual and second rate because you doubt you could ever do it. The secret is to pray God’s own words back to Him. Donald Whitney has beautiful counsel on this. Divide the Psalms into five. So on the first day of the month, read Psalm 1, 31, 61, etc. Prompt yourself to pray. To use Psalm 1, whom do you know sitting in the seat of the scornful or ungodly? Ask God to keep you meditating on His Word day and night. At least one of the five Psalms of the day will prompt the fountains of prayer; you might not even get to them all before your time is up. You will find a freshness and variety to your prayers in so doing. Thank God for encouragement and instruc­tion in how to pray!