THE disciples had been with Christ, and seen Him pray. They had learnt
to understand something of the connection between His wondrous life in public,
and His secret life of prayer. They had learnt to believe in Him as a Master in
the art of prayer—none could pray like Him. And so they came to Him with the
request, ‘Lord, teach us to pray.’ And in after years they would have told us
that there were few things more wonderful or blessed that He taught them than
His lessons on prayer.
And now still it
comes to pass, as He is praying in a, certain place, that disciples who see Him
thus engaged feel the need of repeating the same request, ‘Lord, teach us to
pray.’ As we grow in the Christian life, the thought and the faith of the
Beloved Master in His never-failing intercession becomes evermore precious, and
the hope of being Like Christ in His
intercession gains an attractiveness before unknown. And as me see Him pray,
and remember that there is none who can pray like Him, and none who can teach
like Him, we feel the petition of the disciples, ‘Lord, teach us to pray,’ is
just what we need. And as we think how all He is and has, how He Himself is our
very own, how He is Himself our life, we feel assured that we have but to ask,
and He will be delighted to take us up into closer fellowship with Himself, and
teach us to pray even as He prays.