Matthew 6:5-8 – Teaching about Prayer

The disciples in Luke’s Gospel ask Jesus, “Lord, teach us how to pray”, a seemingly perennial question we would do well to heed in our ultra-busy world.

I often find my prayers to be transactional, rote or sporadic. They don’t allow God to get his word in. And yet, learning from disciples who have heeded Jesus’ instruction, I know prayer to be transformational and relationship building; transforming me by opening the eyes of my heart to the actual truth of who I am, and therefore to the truth of God’s actual relationship with me.

Prayer is thus nothing less than divine union—union with what is, with the moment, with oneself, with the divine. Scripture tells us to be still and know God, awakening an inner dialogue that, from God’s side, has never ceased.

If it is true that lex orandi est lex credenda—“the way you pray is the way you believe”—then we still have much to learn.

Teach us Lord Jesus to pray.

The Reverend Deacon Heino Claessions 
St. Albans Glen Williams.