A Student of Prayer

The disciples sat and watched Jesus pray, then when he was done, they asked Him to give them lessons. What an incredible illustration of how to be a true student of prayer. It makes me wonder how good Christians are at being Spiritual "students," in general:

How often do we watch our Christian leaders, first, before we ask them to tell us specifically how to do something; before asking them to explain something we could have already learned from their example; before asking them to give us the quick, "Cliff's Notes" - "Spirituality for Dummies" - "I hope this won't cost too much of my time" version? The disciples at least had enough patience to watch Jesus demonstrate what needed to be done before asking for a verbal lesson.

Then, there is the obvious fact that the disciples knew, almost instinctively, that prayer was important enough that they needed to be taught and to learn how after witnessing Jesus. They saw then understood the power of prayer.

Question 1: Do you take time to actually watch your Spiritual leaders, first? Do you witness them doing what they do (serving, teaching, correcting, etc.) before asking them to invest time and energy, taking you, individually, by the hand to walk you through a customized "how-to"class?

Question 2: is prayer that important to you? So important that you believe you need to witness an experienced Spiritual leader first and then take lessons? How many of us would be indignant if someone offered to help us with our prayer life? How many of us believe our prayer life is "private," and that no one should intervene or offer advice, because we don't want to be that exposed to other believers?

I'm ashamed to admit that I have struggled with this, and that I sometimes still do struggle with it.

But the example of the disciples, here, implies that the life lived IN the gospel is far too unconcerned about self to hide something so important as your prayer life:
Luke 11:1 NCV - "One time Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his followers said to him, 'Lord, teach us to pray as John taught his followers.'"

What would the church look like if we began trusting each other as believers enough that we were unafraid to learn from each other like this? May God break down walls and give us all the strength to really and truly share life together, and not just socialize about what is comfortable and convenient, as we have become so accustomed to doing.

-Jeff
(posted from my Android)