Teach Me How To Pray, Mother
By J.R. Miller Lord, teach us to pray. Luke 11.1 A little child missed her mother
at a certain time every day. The mother's habit was to slip
away upstairs alone and to be gone for some time. The child
noticed that the mother was always gentler, quieter, and sweeter
after she came back. Her face had lost its weary look
and was shining. Her voice was gladder, more cheerful. do you go, mother?" the child
said thoughtfully. When you leave us every day—
I go upstairs to my room," said the mother. Why do you go to
your room?" continued the little questioner. You always come back
with your face shining. What makes it shine so? I go
to pray," replied the mother reverently. The child was silent
for a little while, and then she said softly, Teach me how
to pray, mother. When you pray, say, Our Father,
Luke 11, 2. That one word is the key to the
whole mystery of prayer. When Jesus taught His disciples
to speak to God, calling Him by that blessed name, He gave
them the greatest of all lessons in prayer, when we can look into
God's face and honestly say, Father, it is easy to pray. God loves to be called Father. It opens His heart to hear all
that we say and to grant all that we ask. Such power has the
word Father spoken by a child to open a human heart Such power,
too, has the name Father, to find and open the heart of God. If we can sincerely say, Father,
when we come to the gate of prayer, we shall be sure to find entrance.
If God is really our Father, we will no longer have any question
as to whether we may pray to Him or as to how to pray. some of us find life hard. It is full of cares and questions,
of tasks and duties, of temptations and dangers. There are thorns
and briars among its roses, there are pitfalls in its sunniest
paths. If we do not know how to pray,
we can never get through the days. The privilege of prayer
is always ours. The gate of prayer is always
open. Any moment we can look up and
say, Father, lay our need before the throne of mercy, and God
will answer us as He desires.