Lord, Teach Us To Pray

It is Andrew Murray's course of lessons on prayer, following the disciples' own request, 'Lord, teach us to pray.' Taking Christ himself as the teacher, Murray works through the Saviour's words on prayer one lesson at a time, unfolding what it means to pray in his name, in faith, in the Spirit, and according to the will of God.

A South African pastor and one of the most beloved devotional writers of the deeper Christian life, author of many short books on prayer and abiding in Christ. This book — often known as With Christ in the School of Prayer — is among his most treasured, a sustained schooling in prayer with Jesus as the master.

Because Murray treats prayer as something to be learned, with Christ as the teacher and the believer as the pupil. Each chapter is a lesson drawn from Jesus' own words about prayer, so that the reader is not merely exhorted to pray but taught how — led step by step deeper into the life of prayer under Christ's instruction.

That it means far more than adding a phrase to the end of a prayer. To pray in Christ's name, Murray teaches, is to pray in union with him, on the ground of who he is and what he has done, seeking what he seeks — so that his name is authority and access, and prayer in that name is prayer God delights to answer.

Murray dwells much on the boldness of Christ's promises — ask and it shall be given, believe that ye receive — and presses the reader to take them at face value. He teaches that faith is essential to prevailing prayer, that it rests on God's word and character, and that Jesus means to lead his pupils into a confident, expectant praying.

No — Murray's deepest concern is that prayer flows from union and communion with Christ. The lessons are practical, but they always root prayer in abiding in him and being led by his Spirit. Murray teaches that the secret of praying well is a living relationship with the Lord who teaches us to pray, not a method applied from outside.

For any Christian who, like the disciples, senses they do not really know how to pray and wants to learn. Murray writes for beginners and for the discouraged as much as for the advanced, and the book has schooled generations in a fuller, more believing, more Christ-centred life of prayer.

At the first lesson and through them in order, since Murray builds his school of prayer step by step from Christ's teaching. The chapters are short and meant to be read prayerfully, one at a time — ideally with the Gospel passage open — so that the reader learns to pray by sitting, lesson by lesson, at the feet of Jesus.