Rhythms of Grace: Pray Persistently

living 24 7 with Jesus the disciples saw that prayer mattered it was a regular feature of his life we know from other points in the Bible he rose early in the morning to pray that was one of his habits one of the things he did they saw that prayer was important to Jesus essential to how he functioned as a human being Jesus connected with God through prayer And I think that's really it.

The essence of prayer is about how we connect with God.

It's through prayer that our connection with God begins.

The very first time we say, Lord, or Jesus, or help me, or anything, the very first time we do that, we connect.

And it's through that continuing connection in different ways that our relationship deepens and changes.

It can happen in the most simple way.

but can end up in the most profound of places.

So if the disciples were going to in any way follow their master, they saw that prayer was one of those things they had to get hold of, one of those issues.

We're thinking about rhythms of grace at the moment.

If you want to pick out one of the rhythms of Jesus' life, it would have been prayer.

So they say to him, simple question, Lord, teach us how to do it.

Teach us how to do it.

So Jesus starts with one word.

And we could spend the rest of the day thinking about just that one word.

Father.

Father.

He's saying that's the kind of intimacy you have with God in prayer.

It's like a parent.

You can tell them anything.

They know you.

They love you more than anybody else.

There is something happening here that is intimate and it's unchangeable.

It's permanent.

Father, It's an extraordinary privilege.

But Jesus just opens it up.