Our Soul’s Yearning

"He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished,
one of his disciples said to him, 'Lord, teach us to pray,
as John taught his disciples.' " Luke 11:1

We all are, in some way or another, in need of more knowledge about how to pray to The True God. I use the phrase, The True God because we sometimes pray to other gods. Those gods are spelled with a small "g," the little bitty gods that draw us away from the one and only God who is the giver of life, who is truth, and who is the embodiment of genuine and abiding love unconditionally for every one of every kind.

In the light of my definition of The True God who is being referred to as "Lord" by the inquiring disciple, but who is also called Jesus by Luke in his gospel writings; I want to ask a question - what is prayer? If I were back there when this account of Jesus praying took place, I would be thinking of asking Jesus this question - Jesus, before you answer that disciples' question about teaching us to pray, please tell me what is prayer? What does the word pray even mean?

This week's Bible reading is from Luke 11:1-13. Jesus answers an important question posed to him by a follower of his who was interested in being taught to pray. He was not simply asking to be taught to pray in general, but taught to pray like John the Baptizer taught his disciples to pray. Jesus then responded to that disciple by praying in a way that has raised a standard for all other prayers prayed after it.

Afterwards, Jesus spoke about God's willingness to respond to our requests made through prayer. As we spiritually prepare for this Sunday, do you understand what prayer means according to God? And why doesn't God respond to all of our most essential prayers with a yes, every time?