With Christ in the School of Prayer Summary: All 31 Lessons

Prayer Discipleship

With Christ in the School of Prayer is Andrew Murray's course of 31 short lessons on what Jesus taught about prayer. Each lesson takes one saying of Christ, explains it, and closes with the disciples' request, "Lord, teach us to pray," and a written prayer. The big idea is simple: Jesus is the only teacher of prayer, He means His promises to be taken as they stand, and God means prayer to have an answer. The book ends with a long note on George Müller as a living example.

You can read the whole book free. Below is what each lesson says, linked to the reader.

Why Murray wrote it

In the preface Murray says the place and power of prayer is "too little understood." He wants readers to see prayer as more than a way to keep their own faith going. It is "the highest part of the work entrusted to us." He also wants them to stop softening Christ's promises with qualifiers and to take the Master's words "simply and literally as they stand."

If there is one thing I think the Church needs to learn, it is that God means prayer to have an answer
With Christ in the School of Prayer, Preface

Lessons 1 to 8: the first lessons

Lord, Teach Us to Pray (The Only Teacher). The disciples saw Jesus pray and asked Him to teach them. Prayer is simple enough for a child and yet the highest work a person can do, and none can teach it like Jesus, who is still praying.
In Spirit and Truth (The True Worshippers). From the woman at the well: the Father seeks worshippers who match His nature. Worship in spirit and truth is not a matter of sincerity alone. It is a gift that comes through the Son and the Spirit.
Pray to Thy Father, Which Is in Secret (Alone with God). Every disciple needs a secret place. The first thing in that room is not our list. It is meeting the Father.
After This Manner Pray (The Model Prayer). The Lord's Prayer puts God's name, kingdom and will first and our needs after. Murray also presses that intercession should take the larger share of our praying.
Ask, and It Shall Be Given You (The Certainty of the Answer). Jesus repeats "ask, seek, knock" because doubt comes naturally to us. Prayer is meant to be answered, and unanswered prayer should send us back to learn.
How Much More? (The Infinite Fatherliness of God). If earthly fathers give good gifts, how much more will God? The promise works inside a real child's life with the Father, lived out in obedience.
How Much More the Holy Spirit (The All-Comprehensive Gift). In Luke, Jesus names the Holy Spirit as the gift. All other gifts are wrapped up in Him, so He should be the first thing we seek.
Because of His Importunity (The Boldness of God's Friends). The friend at midnight asks bread for someone else. God's friends become friends of the needy, and they may ask boldly and keep asking.

Lessons 9 to 16: what to pray and how

Pray the Lord of the Harvest (Prayer Provides Laborers). Jesus told His disciples to pray for workers. Murray takes it plainly: the supply of laborers really does depend on prayer.
What Wilt Thou? (Prayer Must Be Definite). Jesus asked the blind man to say what he wanted. Vague prayer gets vague results. Name the need and expect the answer.
Believe That Ye Have Received (The Faith That Takes). "All things whatsoever" means what it says. Faith grows in the act of praying, so don't wait to feel faith before you pray.
Have Faith in God (The Secret of Believing Prayer). Faith in the promise comes from faith in the One who promises. Spend time looking to God Himself.
Prayer and Fasting (The Cure of Unbelief). The disciples failed because of unbelief. Faith needs a life of prayer to grow, and prayer needs fasting for its full strength.
When Ye Stand Praying, Forgive (Prayer and Love). Prayer can't prevail from a heart that is wrong with people. God judges our prayer by the tone of our ordinary day.
If Two Agree (The Power of United Prayer). Secret prayer is the root and united prayer is the stem. Agree on a definite thing and gather in Jesus' name.
Speedily, Though Bearing Long (The Power of Persevering Prayer). When the answer is slow, keep praying. God is patient with us and will not delay one moment longer than He must.

Lessons 17 to 25: the deeper reasons

I Know That Thou Hearest Me Always (Prayer in Harmony with the Being of God). How can prayer move an unchanging God? Murray answers from the Trinity: the Son has always asked and the Father has always given, and our prayer is taken up into that fellowship.
Whose Is This Image? (Prayer in Harmony with the Destiny of Man). Man was made in God's image to rule the earth for Him. Sin lost that place, Christ won it back, and prayer is how His people exercise it.
I Go unto the Father (Power for Praying and Working). Jesus promised "greater works" because He was going to the Father. Those who work for Him must pray in His name, and those who pray in His name must work.
That the Father May Be Glorified (The Chief End of Prayer). The glory of the Father is the reason Jesus answers. It has to become our reason for asking too, in place of self-interest.
If Ye Abide in Me (The All-Inclusive Condition). The great promise "ask whatsoever ye will" has one condition. Abiding grows from faith, through obedience, into Christ living in us, and then the promise is ours.
My Words in You (The Word and Prayer). God's words prepare our prayer, give it a warrant, and bring the answer. We pray to the Father, and in the Bible the Father speaks to us.
Bear Fruit, That the Father May Give What Ye Ask (Obedience the Path to Power). Power in prayer belongs to fruit-bearing, obedient disciples. This does not cancel free grace. It is what grace produces.
In My Name (The All-Prevailing Plea). To ask in Jesus' name is to come as one who lives for His interests and shares His life. The name works in prayer to the degree it rules our life.
At That Day (The Holy Spirit and Prayer). "At that day" is Pentecost. The Spirit of the glorified Christ draws us into His prayer, and living in His name is the secret of praying in His name.

Lessons 26 to 31: Christ our intercessor, and us with Him

I Have Prayed for Thee (Christ the Intercessor). Christ ever lives to pray. Because we are His body, we share not only the benefits of His intercession but the work itself.
Father, I Will (Christ the High Priest). John 17 shows Jesus praying for Himself, His disciples, and all believers. It is the pattern for our own intercession.
Father! Not What I Will (Christ the Sacrifice). Gethsemane does not take back the bold promises. Christ gave up His will so that we could pray with a surrendered will that God can trust.
If We Ask According to His Will (Our Boldness in Prayer). We find God's will in His Word, taught by His Spirit. Unanswered prayer usually points to something wrong in our asking, not to a hidden decree.
An Holy Priesthood (The Ministry of Intercession). Every believer is a priest. A priest lives for God and for others, walks in holiness, and is consecrated by the blood and the Spirit to pray for the perishing.
Pray Without Ceasing (A Life of Prayer). Unceasing prayer takes a life given to God's glory, confidence that prayer works, and the Spirit's life within. Above all, Jesus teaches by taking us up into His own prayer-life.

The closing note on George Müller

The book ends with George Müller, and the Secret of His Power in Prayer. Murray quotes Müller's own journals at length to show the lessons at work in a real life: prayer and the Word of God, prayer and the will of God, prayer and the glory of God, and steady trust in God's promise while the answer is delayed.

God has raised up in this nineteenth century, among others, George Muller to be His witness that He is indeed the Hearer of prayer.
With Christ in the School of Prayer, George Müller

How the lessons fit together

Read in order, the lessons climb, from the secret room and the Lord's Prayer to believers as priests who share in Christ's intercession. Two threads run through all of them. The answer matters: Murray won't let readers settle for prayer as only a good exercise. And power in prayer depends on the life behind it: abiding in Christ, His words in us, obedience, and the Spirit within.

Keep going

The best lines from each lesson: With Christ in the School of Prayer quotes
One teaching people ask about most: What does it mean to pray in Jesus' name?
The man behind the book: Who was Andrew Murray?

The lessons are short, so many readers take one a day for a month, as Murray suggests in the first lesson. Start With Christ in the School of Prayer today, and see more of his books on the Andrew Murray author page.