Luke 11 shows us the context for the disciple’s request to learn prayer.
Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when He finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1).
Something about the way Jesus prayed, something about His relationship with the Father, caused His followers to yearn for a similar experience. Through the very depth of Jesus’ praying, the disciples recognize their need for prayer.
And isn’t this true for us? The more we see of Jesus, the more we recognize our own emptiness. How far we have fallen from the glory of God! No wonder Jesus says that we cannot enter His kingdom unless we “become like children” (Matthew 18:3-4 cf. Luke 18:17). We cannot make progress until we realize that we are like helpless babies in spiritual matters. Our praying is so lacking in strength of spirit, in consistency, in spiritual vision, in confidence and in effectiveness. When we recognize our smallness, weakness and ignorance—how childish we are compared with the Master’s maturity—then we are ready to enter the school of prayer. We become serious about learning. We too plead, “Lord, teach us to pray.”