#1227. Jesus wants to teach us to pray (12/2/25)

Welcome to this Come to Jesus Daily Devotional (Posted each Monday, Wednesday and Friday) as we continue in our Luke, Exploring Who Jesus is series. 

From Luke 18:1, let’s reflect on the truth that Jesus wants to, and how we can learn from Him, to pray. 

You can listen to this devotional below (It’s also available on Spotify on the Community Church Putney podcast) 

This parable is set in the context of waiting for the Kingdom of God to come - the return of Christ. During this period there will be much difficulty and God wants us to remain faithful. A key attribute that we all need to endure whilst waiting for Jesus to come in prayer. 

How can we learn to pray?

1. Have faith in Jesus as our teacher

The Parable of the Persistent Widow reveals that Jesus is eager to teach us how to pray. It is His will, and He promises to assist anyone who earnestly seeks His guidance in learning to pray. Many of us find prayer challenging and may lack confidence in our ability to grow in this area. Too often, we allow our perceived limitations or past experiences—such as struggling to learn something in school—to hold us back. However, if Jesus, the Lord of all, desires to teach us to pray, we can have full confidence that we are capable of becoming not just competent but truly effective in prayer.

2. Study God’s word on the subject

Secondly, if we want to learn anything about the spiritual life, including prayer, it’s vital that we study what God says about it in His Word. The Psalms, for example, give us examples of how to pray. As we read each Psalm, we are being taught how to speak to God. There is much in the gospels about Jesus’ example and direction on how to pray. This Parable of the Persistent Widow, for example, is teaching us much about prayer. Most clearly, is Jesus’ instruction from what we often call The Lord’s prayer:

Here, we are given the themes that should regularly be in our prayers:

• Praise - Spend time praising God for who He is and what He’s done. 

• Petitions - Ask Him for big and small things.

• Peace-making - Ask Him for forgiveness and forgive others. 

• Protection - Ask for protection as you go into your day. 

Here is a link to my New King New Kingdom course on The Lord’s Prayer:

https://www.communitychurchputney.com/biblestudy/categories/new-king-new-kingdom

3. Put learning into practice 

This step is vital. We must get started. We learn by doing. Like learning to walk or talk, we learn to pray by praying. We can’t expect to get fit by reading about exercise! We must do the exercise and develop as we do so, little by little. 

4. Keep going

Finally, we must keep going. Keep asking Jesus to teach us to pray. Keep studying the subject. Keep putting it into practice. Let’s not be those who become complacent. Let’s be like this persistent widow and keep on praying because it’s vital for our lives. 

Let’s pray together as we finish

“Lord Jesus, please teach me to pray. Teach me to pray effectively. Please teach my church to pray. Help me to encourage prayer in others and a praying culture in my church community. Amen.” 

Community Group Notes

1. Notices

It might be good to begin with notices. Please share from this week’s Church News. 

https://www.communitychurchputney.com/funkymonkeys

2. Icebreaker

How has God been speaking to you from His Word this week, and how has this helped you? 

3. Worship together

Let’s begin our time together by lifting our eyes and hearts to worship our great God. Perhaps you have readings and songs that you would like to use together. Let’s be open to the gifts that the Spirit wants to give in order to encourage one another.

4. Study and pray together

On Sunday, in our message from Luke 18:1-8 was entitled, In The Waiting, Keep Praying. From The Parable of the Persistent Widow, we reflected on how, in the days of waiting for Jesus to return, an era marked with much trial, we are to remain faithful in prayer. 

Please read Luke Luke 18:1-8 and discuss: 

• Did God speak to you about anything from Sunday’s message that would encourage others? 

• How does this parable fit together with the previous chapter’s teaching on the coming of the Kingdom of God? 

• He ends the section with the words, ‘“However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”’ How does this fit with the teaching on prayer? 

• Our vision at CCP is: Vision: Bringing People to Jesus: Myself, One Another, Our Community. In regard to this first aspect (‘myself’) our first goal is: ‘We come to Jesus daily by setting aside quality time each day in prayer and worship out of the Bible and asking to be filled with the Holy Spirit (20 minutes, using the ‘come to Jesus daily’ blog is a good start.) How would you like to make progress in regard to this goal?

• This parable speaks of persistence in personal prayer, prayer with friends/family, and prayer with the church; Why is important that our prayer-life be a good balance of personal and corporate prayer? 

• SIV - How does this parable teach about prayer in regard to bringing our community to Jesus? 

• SIV - Do we have any stories of how we have ‘Served, Invested, and inVited’ recently?

• SIV - Spend some time together talking and praying about who and how you are seeking to bring your community to Jesus; alternatively, pray for the ‘people of peace’ that you regularly meet with. 

• Let’s pray together: Pray for one another out of our study together and for anything else for which people would like prayer.