Teach Us How to Pray...

Of all the things the disciples could have asked Jesus to teach them, they request, "Lord, teach us how to pray."

Doesn't that seem a little odd considering the list of amazing miracles they watched Him perform?

They literally witnessed Jesus supernaturally defy the laws of nature without being able to rationally explain it. Things like changing water into wine, healing the crippled, the sick, the diseased, lepers, the deaf, the blind, the paralyzed, bleeding disorders, casting out demons, and let's not forget the crème de la crème of raising people from the dead!

Why would the disciples ask Jesus to teach them how to pray, instead of, teaching them how to perform those miracles?

Before we dive into some murky water here, let me clarify by saying, Jesus did not come to earth to teach us how to do miracles and become a local group of street-performing magicians. There was always a purpose behind the miracles and Jesus never performed those miracles outside of the leading of the Holy Spirit.

"Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner." John 5:19

His objective was never to teach us how to become the local magician or the latest and greatest "supernatural rockstar". His objective was to teach us how to respond to what He saw the Father doing. In fact, Jesus even says:

“An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and a sign will not be given it, except the sign of Jonah." And He left them and went away. Matthew 16:4