By Noah Hess
“Do you want to pray for the food…? I don’t know how to pray.” I sat across the table from my friend. Moments before, after experiencing roadblock after roadblock, I had prayed and asked the Holy Spirit to open a door for me to share the Gospel and invite my friend into a dynamic relationship with Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit’s response was to provide an opportunity to lead my friend in a prayer over food- and a mere half an hour later, I would be celebrating as we prayed a second time in celebration as my friend made the decision to follow Christ as Savior and King!
For individuals who didn’t grow up in the church, prayer can appear confusing, complicated, or, if we’re honest, just wacky. They might have a warped understanding (or no understanding at all) of the nature and purpose of prayer. The unfortunate truth is that among disciples of Jesus, many of us look more like non-Christians than Christ when it comes to our prayer life. Jesus addressed this during the famous Sermon On The Mount of Matthew 5-7, where He modeled to His disciples the heart of our communication with God in the Lord’s Prayer.
READ: Matthew 28:18-20, Matthew 6:5-14
As disciples of Christ, you and I are called to “make disciples of all nations.”
The process of making disciples has two facets: making and maturing disciples.
On one hand, we make disciples when we share the good news of the Gospel with non-Christians who, by the grace of God, respond by submitting to Christ as king. The flip-side of that coin occurs when disciples of Jesus are made more into His image (sanctified) by the same Gospel that first captivated their heart transforming their life in the 2nd, 10th, 100th, and 10,000th time!
If you and I, as disciples of Christ are called to make more disciples and are to model Christ as the ultimate discipler, then it becomes quite clear that a significant portion of our roles will consist of modeling what prayer looks like to those we interact with! Whether it be a non-Christian coworker or relative, a friend from your home group or area of service at City Church, or a member of your immediate household, our relationships should be saturated with prayer.
Before Christ models prayer, however, he makes sure to reinforce our motivations for prayer. He reminds his disciples that they aren’t to pray like the Pharisees who sought social and religious prestige, or like the Gentiles who thought that the verbal prowess or length of their prayers would result in divine favor. Our God sees and acknowledges us in public and private, and our Good Father already knows what we need before we ask Him. As we strive to be disciples who make disciples who make disciples, let’s keep prayer central to everything that we do!
Response:
Who is someone with whom you can model prayer with today?
Have you “prayed in secret” for the Christians and non-Christians in your life? How can you be advocating for these relationships in prayer?
Pray for a culture where making disciples is viewed as an ordinary part of the Christian life.
Pray with us 6/2/24