We ask for too little. Our prayers are too small.
The Lord Jesus wants to care for us, for our homes and neighbors, for our church and nation, and for all of His creation. Our prayers rarely reflect the expansiveness of the Lord’s power and promises.
In the Large Catechism, Martin Luther introduces the Lord’s Prayer under four topics: The Command, the Promise, the Words, and Our Great Need. (This Introduction to Prayer is included as an appendix to this study here. ) When discussing all that we need in this life, Luther concludes:
We all have enough that we lack. The great trouble is that we do not feel nor see it. Therefore God requires you to lament and plead such necessities and wants, not because He does not know them, but that you may kindle your heart to stronger and greater desires, and make wide and open your cloak to receive much. (Source)
Our great need is matched by God’s great generosity, His desire to provide for us, to give us all we need for this life and the life to come.
This Bible Study and workbook is written to capture this hopeful understanding of prayer, and bring it into practice. It is a simple idea: we will look at the prayers of the Bible and ask, “What are these prayers asking?” We will often find that we are not asking for the same things. We will then consider, “How can I also ask for these things? Can I ask them for my friends and family, for myself, etc.?” In this was we will let the prayers of the Scripture expand our prayers.
In week one we consider the seven petitions of the Lord’s Prayer, and we’ll let Luther’s Large Catechism do most of the heavy lifting for us.
In week two we will pray with Kind David and turn to the seven penitential Psalms.
In week three we will pray with the Apostle Paul. In his thirteen letters he gives us nineteen reports of his prayer. We’ll look at seven of his prayers.
In week four we’ll listen carefully some of the prayers of Jesus, and consider how these also expand our prayers.
Expanding our prayers works, I believe, in two directions. First, it expands our own desires. The Lord’s Word trains us to want the right things, to desire those things which are holy and beautiful and good and true. When the Lord teaches our need He is correcting and stretching our desires to match what He wants for us. This, second, expands our faith, our trust in the Lord’s provision for us and all creation in a marvelous way. When we study the prayers of the Scripture we begin to understand that the Lord will provide for us more than we could ask for or even imagine (see Ephesians 3:20).
This study will have a daily assignment with simple home work: read a passage, identify the prayers and petitions, and consider how these petitions could be added to your prayers.
Let’s dive into the prayers of the Scripture, and let the Lord continue to teach us to pray. (Luke 11:1).
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