March 23 Daily Devotional

(continued from March 22)
How to pray

Do you know that the essence of true prayer is found in the two words in [Matthew 6] verse 9, "Our Father"? ... If you can say from your heart, whatever your condition, "My Father," in a sense your prayer is already answered....

There are people who believe it is a good thing to pray because it always does us good. They adduce various psychological reasons. That of course is not prayer as the Bible under­stands it. Prayer means speaking to God, forgetting ourselves, and realizing His presence.

Then again, there are others ... who rather think that ... one's prayer should be very brief and pointed and one should just simply make a particular request. That is something which is not true of the teaching of the Bible concerning prayer. Take any of the great [Bible] prayers.... None of them is simply what we might call this "business-like" kind of prayer which simply makes a petition known to God and then ends.

Every prayer recorded in the Bible starts with invocation.... We have a great and wonderful example of this in the ninth chapter of Daniel. There the prophet, in terrible perplexity, prays to God. But he does not start immediately with his petition; he starts by praising God. A perplexed Jeremiah does the same thing; ... he does not rush into the presence of God for this one matter; he starts by worshiping God.

And so you will find it in all the recorded prayers. Indeed, you even get it in the great High-Priestly prayer of our Lord Himself which is recorded in John 17. You remember also how Paul put it in writing to the Philippians. He says, "In nothing be anxious; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God" (Philippians 4:6 R.V.). That is the order. We must always start with invocation.

Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, ii, pp. 52-3

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“Text reproduced from ‘A First Book of Daily Readings’ by Martyn Lloyd-Jones, published by Epworth Press 1970 & 1977 © Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes. Used with permission.”

Comments on D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, A First Book of Daily Readings

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