LORD, Teach Us to Pray!<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Prayer is not merely a privilege granted to believers to call on God in the time of crisis or to obtain their heart's desires. For sure those blessed elements are included yet that's not all prayer is. No, rather prayer is saving faith in action and an absolute imperative to overcoming which is essential to receiving final salvation. If not there would have been no reason that the Son of God would have uttered the words of warning He issued forth as we have recorded in Luke 21:34-36:

"And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man." Luke 21:34-36

Prayer is a matter of life and death. The person who doesn't find it important to pray is not living by faith and is denying Christ. Most people believe that in order to deny Christ, one must verbally denounce Him. Not so! Any person who is saved and does not acknowledge and enact what He instructed is in denial of Him. According to the LORD, His people must "watch" and "pray" to "be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man."
One's relationship to Christ is directly reflected in his prayer life or lack thereof. If one has no prayer life, it is because he does not count the Son of God important enough to spend time with or to get to know. Because of this, that person allows the "the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things" to displace His relationship with the Savior.
"Lord, teach us to pray" - We should ask the LORD to teach us to pray. The disciples called on Jesus to teach them to pray – to have a prayer life. Christ answered them and us by giving the whole Church a model prayer to be followed in spontaneous and joyful relationship. Here it is:
"And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil." Luke 11:1-4
See PRAYER DIRECTIVE: http://www.safeguardyoursoul.com/html/prayer_directive.html
Jesus Is Coming,
<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />todd tomasella