Lessons & Devotionals By Mary Wolfe
Leaning on the piano, brown eyes sparkling with admiration as he watched me play, the little boy could hardly wait for the last note to be played before exclaiming, "One day will you teach me to play the piano?" How do you explain to an enthused child that one does not learn to play the piano in one day, no matter how much one would like to do so; and that even mediocre playing like mine took years of study, a consistent desire to learn, and hours of practice. Could my reaction and thoughts that day have been similar to the thoughts of the Master when His disciples (excited by His example) eagerly cried: "Lord, teach us to pray!" This request was certainly not the simple request it seemed. Traumatic events led up to this moment. The disciples had joyously returned from their victorious revival crusade ? healing the sick, preaching the gospel. A time of rejoicing followed as they told the Master "all they had done." He took them aside privately to a desert place to rejoice and rest, but the crowd discovered where they were and followed them ? 5,000 men plus women and children! The disciples had then participated in the great miracle of feeding the multitudes. Jesus then opened their understanding that He was the Christ and then He, Peter, James and John went to the mountaintop. Why didn't Philip and Nathaniel go along? Why didn't Matthew and Thomas go to the mountaintop? Perhaps they felt that someone should stay with the crowd? Perhaps they were exhausted from all the excitement. But now they suffered the humiliation of defeat. For while Jesus was away praying with Peter, James, and John, a man brought his demoniac son to them and besought them to cast the demon out ? and they could not! All of the victories of yesterday were forgotten in the embarrassment that ensued, the sense of failure. Can you imagine the looks of chagrin as the Master returned? the shame with which they listened as the man told Jesus, "I besought thy disciples ... and they COULD NOT! " And then for them to see the demon cast out by one word from the Lord. They could hardly wait for the crowd to leave so they could cry out, "WHY COULD NOT WE?" The answer came directly and tersely, "This kind can come forth by nothing but by prayer and fasting." Then they remembered. Was it only a little more than a week before (about which Luke told us), "He was ALONE praying, his disciples were with Him..." He was ALONE praying, but the disciples were there, evidently NOT praying. And then eight days later, when going to the mountaintop to pray, only Peter, James and John went along, and even they went to sleep while He prayed. The question must have been then as now: How do you pray when you have so much to do, when you are weary, when you are busy with victories, when crowds are pressing around? They had seen the Master "rise up early", "pray all night",and even leave important things undone while He prayed ("...great multitudes came together to hear and to be healed...and He withdrew Himself into the wilderness and prayed" Luke 5:15,16). However they still had not learned. And finally the cry came forth, "Lord, teach us to pray." They were not asking just for a lesson on "how to pray," but they wanted Him to teach them "TO pray." You see, prayer does not come naturally to the believer. One cannot pray successfully and effectually just because of a desire to do so. Prayer is a skill to be learned and developed. Prayer cannot be learned solely by example ? for the apostles had the greatest example ? Jesus, praying all night, rising up early, etc. Prayer is not learned just by hearing good teaching concerning it, for Jesus taught His disciples as much on prayer as on any other subject of Christian living. He had taught them to how to pray ["pray with persistence" (Luke l8:1), "pray with humility" (Luke l8:9)], when to pray ["pray without ceasing" (Luke l8:7,8) and "pray FIRST" (Matthew 6:33)], where to pray ["pray in secret" (Matthew 6:6)], and why pray "pray of necessity" [(Mark l4:38). And yet the disciples still had not learned; they would fail miserably in Gethsemane! Desire is not enough, example is not enough, and just lessons do not teach us. Like learning any other skill, learning to pray successfully involves three prerequisites: (1) Desire. (2) Study. (3) Practice. The disciples finally did learn! In Acts, we find the same men who found it difficult to pray three hours, praying for seven to ten days. We find them giving themselves continually to prayer and prayer being made "without ceasing." Lord, with the disciples we cry, "Teach us to pray!"
But most of all, Lord, teach us TO pray. THE FIRST PREREQUISITE - DESIRE: All have a certain degree of desire to pray more. Many, many times we are exhorted to pray and the Spirit confirms to us this need. The resolution to pray more is perhaps the resolution most often broken of born?again Christians. Satan vigorously fights this desire because he knows the effectiveness of prayer. Even the flesh wars against this desire. It was about the desire to pray that Jesus said, "The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak." In order to learn effective praying, we must learn to encourage this desire, to increase it and enhance it, to whet our appetite for prayer. Isaiah said, "There is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold on thee..." (Isaiah 64:7). Hosea admonishes us to "Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord..." (Hosea l0:12). The question is, how do we stir up ourselves, how do we sow to ourselves, how to we break up our fallow ground to seek the Lord? We must actively seek motivation. Nothing motivates us to learn a skill more than a good example, i.e. hearing, reading, or seeing someone who has learned it. Association with people who have learned to pray whets our appetite for an effective prayer life. We also can "stir ourselves," increase our desire, by reading the Bible and other motivational books on prayer. Listening to tapes of sermons on prayer will also increase our desire and stir us up. We must continually remind ourselves of WHY we pray. Then, if any man lack...let him ask of God. It is certainly His will that we desire this skill. Pray for the desire to pray! THE SECOND PREREQUISITE - STUDY: "Teach us what we shall say unto him: for we cannot order our speech by reason of darkness." Job 37:19 In order to learn the skill of prayer, we need to go to the Bible, our textbook, to study the basics. The Bible is full of lessons of when, what, how, and where to pray and examples of prayer. Nearly every major Bible character has a recorded prayer for us to study. Without the psalms (a prayer book in itself), there are 650 specific prayers in the Bible. Nothing in the Bible was written without purpose. "For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning." Romans l5:4. These prayers were put there for our study. We would do well to learn many of these prayers by memory for we are told: "After this manner, pray ye..."; "when ye pray, say...","Let the priests, the ministers weep...and let them say..." Prayer will not always come spontaneously and easily. When it does not, it helps to enter the realm of prayer by using these examples, i.e. the Lord's prayer, Nehemiah's prayer in Nehemiah 9, a prayer of Daniel's (see Daniel 9), one of Ezra's prayers, one of Soloman's prayers, or one of the psalms. If certain prayers were effective for Abraham, Moses, David, Elijah, Nehemiah, Ezra, or Jonah, they will work for me if I pray them with sincerity. Jonah's prayer in the belly of the whale (that got him out!) quoted from the psalms at least five times. Jesus quoted Psalm 22:l and Psalm 3l:5 in His prayer on the cross. Praying a prayer from memory is not what Jesus referred to when he forbade vain repetition. Repetition is not forbidden: vain repetition is forbidden. Many times David repeated, "Have mercy on me, O God," or "Bless the Lord, O my soul!" In fact, we are commanded, "Let such as love thy salvation say continually: The Lord be magnified. (Psalm 70:4). It is impossible to pray consistently, effectively, and at length without a study of prayer. The lack of study is one reason so many have failed in their resolutions to pray as they ought. We can pray at length when we have a special, great need, but not on a daily basis unless we have studied prayer. Let us ask, "Lord, teach us to pray," and then study the many, many lessons He provides us with. Enroll in the school of prayer! Write what you learn; it is easy to forget. It helps to have a prayer notebook. STUDY, STUDY, STUDY! THE THIRD PREREQUISITE: PRACTICE In conjunction with our desire and study,we must practice prayer. David said it like this, "I give myself unto prayer." (Psalm 109:4). We know that we have to practice, sports, job skills, or musical instruments in order to become adept and proficient, but do not take the time to practice until we learn to pray effectively. The more we practice any skill, the better we become at it. By praying, we learn to pray! The way to pray well is to pray much! Practice must be planned. A skill is seldom learned without a time set aside for practice. David said, "Evening, morning, and at noon will I pray and cry aloud,"1 and "My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord..."2 and "In the night his song shall be with me and my prayer unto the God of my life,"3 "I cry unto thee DAILY."4 Peter and John went up to the temple at the "hour of prayer" and Daniel consistently kneeled upon his knees "three times a day and prayed." The primary obstacle to prayer is setting aside this TIME, giving prayer the priority in our lives that it deserves. We need to plan when and where we will pray. This will usually involve letting others know that this time is reserved. PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT. Practice, practice, practice. The more we practice prayer, the better we become at it and the easier it becomes. Again, the way to pray well is to pray much! By prying, we learn to pray! Even sessions that do not seem to go well are helpful in developing this skill. Like the apostles, we will not learn overnight. They failed many times before they really learned to pray: "He took Peter and John and James and went up into a mountain to PRAY...but Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep."5 Then again at a later date: "Being in agony, he prayed more earnestly...and when he rose up from PRAYER and was come to his disciples, he found them sleeping."6 They, however, eventually learned for almost every chapter in Acts mentions prayer. We see them then as they determined "We will give ourselves continually to prayer..."7, as "they continued...in prayer and supplication",8 and as prayer "was made without ceasing of the church unto God..."9 Prayer is the hardest skill in the world to master. At first, there is no work that appears so simple, but later on none that seems more difficult. But prayer is the most important thing we can do for ourselves, our families, our churches, our nation, and our world. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much!10 Practice to become effectual!
 Editor's Note: Mary Wolfe has been a preacher's wife for years, as the wife of Rev. Larry Wolfe. She is also an excellent teacher, as you will find out when you read her excellent lessons. Her ministry is a great blessing in a church filled with great preachers, the Pentecostals of Alexandria. We are happy to have Mary join the SGM staff as a regular featured writer.
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Mary's Musings
