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Selma has been a Christian for several years. Selma loves to pray. She spends a great deal of time telling God what she wants Him to do for her, her family and her friends. However, Selma doesn’t appear to listen to what God is telling her. To her, prayer is repeating request until God grants her. Selma has a great deal to learn about prayer.
By studying the teachings of Jesus and the examples given of His prayers, the Christian can begin to develop an understanding of how to communicate with God. Prayers of the early church as well as prayers from the Old Testament provide examples of individuals coming to God for many different reasons but always with assurance of being heard. In addition, the new Christians learn that God doesn’t require a specific posture, position or words. She is free to tell God al that is in her heart at any time, in any place and in any position.
Jesus tells us to avoid meaningless repetitions. One form of repetitious prayer that the new Christian might have seen would be some Muslims repeating the name of God until they fall into a trance. Others will repeat the name of God or some other religious word or phrase as a means of divining the future or finding the answer to a question. While the new Christian may not herself have practiced this, she probably knows someone who does. Help her to understand why God isn’t pleased with these actions.
This lesson deals with the teachings of Jesus regarding prayer. Some of the public prayers of Jesus are included for study. The student is then asked to apply what Jesus taught and His example to her own life. Although she was uncomfortable with this at first, I encouraged Selma to pray aloud with me. She prayed in her own language and gradually grew more at ease with public prayer.
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