Praying Like Jesus: Persisting In Prayer

Hebrews 5:7 "In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety." 

The reasoning behind this study is simple: in praying like Jesus our consistency and effectiveness in prayer will increase. Thus far we have considered the following eight traits of Jesus' prayer-life: priority & power; fellowship of prayer; prayer in our decisions; praying for one's enemies; thankfulness; encouraging others to pray; praying for unbelievers and praising God. Today's post features a vital trait that must not merely accompany prayer but be regarded as the essence of prayer itself - namely persistence. 

Roughly 30% of Jesus teaching ministry included parables. A parable is quite literally taking a known idea, experience or story and "throwing it alongside" an otherwise unknown or familiar spiritual concept. On one occasion we see Jesus so emphasizing the need to persevere in prayer that He dedicates an entire parable to that theme. Luke records the parable of the "Unjust Judge" in Luke 18:1-8 "Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart, 2 saying, 'In a certain city there was a judge who did not fear God and did not respect man.3 There was a widow in that city, and she kept coming to him, saying, ‘Give me legal protection from my opponent.’ 4 For a while he was unwilling; but afterward he said to himself, ‘Even though I do not fear God nor respect man, 5 yet because this widow bothers me, I will give her legal protection, otherwise by continually coming she will wear me out.’ 6 And the Lord said, 'Hear what the unrighteous judge said; 7 now, will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them? 8 I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?'

What is amazing about all of the traits of Jesus' prayer-life that we have studied up to this point is that we could possess them all, and yet not pray-like Jesus for reason of simply giving up in prayer. Certainly it is difficult to judge which characteristic is most crucial when it comes to prayer. Anyone of the traits is important. However the theme of "persistent prayer", or what older Bible translations term "importune prayer" gets us close to distinguishing Jesus-like prayer  from powerless rote-like prayer. The key to persisting in prayer, according to this parable, is to plead upon the character and ability of God to bring about answers to our prayer. If you and I believe that God hears prayer (Matthew 7:7-11) and if we believe He is able to do far beyond all that we can think and imagine (Ephesians 3:20) then our ability to persevere will be heightened. It is fair to say that to the degree you believe God is willing and able, so will be the amount you persist in prayer. This is why we read Jesus saying in Luke 21:36 "But keep on the alert at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are about to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

Point of Application: Prayer, like life itself, is not a sprint but a marathon. Faith trains us to base our confidence on what we can't see, rather than on what we can see. May we not give up and become prayerless. As Adrian Rogers once said: "God's delays are not God's denials." May you and I persist in our prayers and keep on keeping on until God answers our requests.

Praying Like Jesus: Praising God

Hebrews 5:7 "In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety." 

As we have surveyed the prayer-life of Jesus up to this point, our aim has been in praying like Him. The reasoning behind this study is simple: in praying like Jesus our consistency and effectiveness in prayer will increase. Thus far we have considered the following seven traits of Jesus' prayer-life: 

1. Priority & power

2. Fellowship of prayer

3. Prayer in our decisions

4. Praying for one's enemies

5. Thankfulness

6. Encouraging others to pray 

7. Praying for the salvation of unbelievers.

In today's post we focus on another very important trait of what it means to pray like Jesus - praising the Father. Luke records by Divine inspiration these words in Luke 10:21 "At that very time He rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit, and said, 'I praise You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight." Now why was Jesus praising the Father? In the context of Luke 10, seventy of Jesus' followers had been sent out with instructions on how to minister and perform miracles in Jesus' name. Nothing thrills the Lord more than when His people do His bidding and do it with joy! In Luke 10:1-20 we see the seventy go out and then return with exceeding joy on the success that attended their ministry.

Jesus' instructions to them and delegation of authority was the reason for their success. Yet what we see Jesus doing in Luke 10:21 speaks volumes as to why His instructions and delegation to those seventy disciples was successful - because He gave credit to the Father. The life of praise to God is like a fountain that spills over into the attitudes and the activities of the person. Praising God in prayer has the effect of transforming both the person and those around them. Nehemiah 8:10 reminds us that "the joy of the Lord is our strength". Philippians 4:4 adds to the previous thought by connecting our praise with God to His power and peace in Philippians 4:5-9. When praise is the tone of our prayers, all of the other elements studied thus far in this blog series will take its cue. Jesus' prayer life was regulated by His joy and praise of the Father.

Point of Application: When you and I praise the Lord in our prayer times, prayer automatically goes from being a duty to a delight. Jesus was a joyful man - and it shows! When you and I are joyful on the inside, it will show on the outside. Joy carries with it a sense of calmness and certainty that is missing in our world. May you and I pray like Jesus by praising the Father!

Praying Like Jesus: Praying For Unbelievers

Hebrews 5:7 "In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety." 

Welcome to day seven of our study on "Praying Like Jesus". The hope is that this study has began to change how you look at prayer and pray. In today's post Jesus is going to demonstrate perhaps one of the most significant things we can pray for: praying for unbelievers. When we think of all the reasons God has the church to continue being a presence here on earth, a number of suggestions are offered. Some note that Jesus wanted to have us remain in this world to be a worshipping people. Certainly we are to worship Him through our songs, hearing the Word of God and living out our daily lives before others - however worship will only be perfect in heaven. As noted teacher Dr. John MacArthur points out - the clue to defining our main purpose for remaining here on earth is found in the one thing we will not be doing in Heaven. 

All other activities that are very important: fellowship, growing in sanctification and learning scripture are biggies when it comes to defining the essentials of Godly living in this world - however they do not mark the chief reason for why we are here. All of those activities will continue on into eternity where Christians will not only had perfected them but will continue excelling in them. The only activity that will cease once we leave this world - either by death or rapture - is that of evangelism.

Jesus states in Luke 10:1-2 "Now after this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them in pairs ahead of Him to every city and place where He Himself was going to come. 2 And He was saying to them, 'The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest."'  Praying for unsaved loved ones, friends and co-workers opens the door for the Holy Spirit to lay such persons on our hearts and to see them as souls in need of the Savior. Evangelism is the Christian's greatest responsibility, which requires prayer.

As Jesus was dying on the cross, He prayed on behalf of unbelievers in Luke 23:33-34. Jesus uttered a total of seven sayings on the cross, and the prayer for unconverted people was the first of those sayings. The heart of Jesus' mission was to die for sinners. In the immediate sense He was praying for the Romans and Jews who had sentenced and condemned Him. Yet we also recognize in that prayer He was praying by extension for those sinners who sins He died for.

Point of Application: How often do you and I pray for unbelievers? We pray for the sick - and we should. We often pray for safety in traveling or before our meals - and we ought. We pray for provision of needs - which is necessary. Yet how often do we pray for unbelievers' salvation? Praying for the unsaved is the one thing that will break us from the tendency to focus on ourselves and begin the process of focusing on others. This is how Jesus taught and lived in His prayer life - putting others before Himself.

Praying Like Jesus - Encouraging others to pray

Hebrews 5:7 "In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety." 

These past five days have been dedicated to looking closer into Jesus' prayer-life to learn how to prayer-like Him. We have discovered five important principles: 

1. Prayer's power & priority

2. Fellowship

3. Significance in our decision making

4. Praying for one's enemies 
5. Thankfulness.  

Jesus consistently practiced each of those elements and so much more, modeling to us what effective prayer looks like, sounds-like and acts-like. Today's post features another very important element in learning to pray like Jesus - namely encouraging others to pray. Jesus did not keep His prayer-life to Himself, but gradually taught His disciples to pray and urged those listening to Him to do the same.

Luke 9:28-29 states: "Some eight days after these sayings, He took along Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. 29 And while He was praying, the appearance of His face became different, and His clothing became white and gleaming." This is the episode where Jesus gives the disciples a sneak peak into His undiminished Deity shining through His full humanity. Among the twelve disciples that followed Jesus throughout His ministry, there was an inner circle composed of Peter, James and John. Those three were invited by the Lord to come pray. In prayer we find that situations or issues that are closed to us in the realm of our thoughts or emotions are opened up when we go into prayer. Jesus desired to reveal His glory to these men, and chose to do so in the context of their corporate prayer. His desire for them was to pray.

Luke 19:45-46 depicts another episode where Jesus is cleansing the temple: "Jesus entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling, 46 saying to them, 'It is written, ‘And My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a robbers’ den.”'  Twice in Jesus' ministry we find Him cleansing the temple, both at the onset of His ministry (John 2) and here in Luke 19 at the near end. Why did Jesus do this? Because the outer courts of the temple had become a place of commerce, greed and dried-up ritual. 

The principle laid down by Jesus regarding the Jewish Temple as being a "house of prayer" is one which the Father had revealed concerning the tabernacle being a place where the priests would represent the people in offerings and prayer. 

Later on in the Old Testament we see this same principle of the temple being a "house of prayer" as spoken by Solomon in the dedication of Israel's first temple in 2 Chronicles 7:14. As Jesus placed a premium on prayer in His private life, He demanded that prayer be a major priority in the life of His people. The New Testament church is still to carry on this important principle of praying like Jesus and urging others to do the same, being that Christians are corporately identified as a Kingdom of Priests (1 Peter 2:9-12) that offer up prayers on behalf of people. (1 Timothy 2:1-4). Jesus invited others to join Him in prayer by means of example and exhortation.

Point of Application: If people were to look at our lives from afar, would they be able to tell that we are a praying people? Do we believe Jesus enough to say that prayer is so important that we could by our example and by encouragement convince others to pray? It is a challenging thought but a true one that needs to be applied. Jesus set the tone for how we as His people were to pray, not only as individual believers but as a corporate body of saints - His church. Simply praying for someone or even with someone can leave an impact. May you and I follow the lead of our Lord and pray - and then encourage others to do the same.

Praying Like Jesus: Thankfulness in your prayer-life

Hebrews 5:7 "In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety."                                                 

Welcome to day five of your study through the prayer life of Jesus.  In this study we are aiming to pray like Jesus so as to become more effective in our prayer-life. Thus far we have considered:

1. Prayer's priority and power
2. Fellowship with God
3. Praying when making decisions
4. Praying for our enemies. 

In today's post we aim to consider how Jesus included thankfulness in His prayer-life. Jesus did 35 recorded miracles in the four Gospels. Though Jesus had the right and power to do what He did as God, He as a rule yielded accessing that right in favor of depending upon the Holy Spirit Who was His Companion, empowering Him as the Messiah. Luke 9:16 records the greatest of Jesus mass miracles - the feeding of the 5,000: "Then He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed them, and broke them, and kept giving them to the disciples to set before the people." Jesus "blessed" or "acknowledged the grace and power of God" to His Heavenly Father. The heart of Jesus beat with thankfulness to His Father for the opportunity to feed the people to whom he was ministering. This particular miracle was significant in that Jesus was demonstrating Himself as the "Bread of Life", as well as representing the height of His popularity. Despite the throngs of people, by the time the miracle was over, almost all of them defected from Jesus. Despite that profoundly disappointing outcome, Jesus ever remained thankful and thus on target in His desire to complete the work assigned to Him by the Father.

As Jesus neared the cross we see Him on the eve of His crucifixion in Luke 22:17-19 "And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He said, “Take this and share it among yourselves; 18 for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes.” 19 And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” Notice what He does in the distribution of the elements of the bread and fruit of the vine - He had "given thanks". In the Passover Meal, of which this undoubtedly was, Jesus would had been distributing what the Jews called "The Cup of Redemption", commemorating God's deliverance of the Israelites in the Exodus from the hand of Pharaoh in Exodus 12-15. In giving thanks for that major event of redemption, Jesus was looking forward to what would be the greatest act of redemption - namely His own act.

The theme of thankfulness in Jesus' prayer life continues right through His post-resurrection appearances to His disciples. Luke in Luke 24:30 records: "When He had reclined at the table with them, He took the bread and blessed it, and breaking it, He began giving it to them." Later on in the same chapter we read in vss 50-51 of how Jesus blessed His disciples as he ascended into Heaven. It is interesting how much we can link the blessing or thankfulness of Jesus to instances of eating and feasting in Luke. Truly thanksgiving in our prayer-life enables us to feast and enjoy the presence of the Father.

Point of Application: When was the last time you and I spent the majority of our prayer-time thanking the Lord? 1 Thessalonians 5:17 reminds us to "pray without ceasing. Jesus was ever thankful in His prayer-life and may we be the same in ours.

Praying Like Jesus: Praying for your enemies

Hebrews 5:7 "In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety."

So far in this study we have considered what it means to pray like Jesus in the following areas: 1. Priority and power of prayer
2. Prayer being fellowship with God 
3. Praying to make daily decisions.  

In today's devotional we look at one of the more difficult areas of prayer and life that Jesus masterfully models to us: praying for one's enemies.  Luke records by inspiration of the Holy Spirit in Luke 6:27-28 “But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you." We find it easy to pray for loved ones and to pray for our fellow Christians - but what about the boss or that annoying co-worker or perhaps that family member whom you would rather avoid at the next family reunion? What is the typical ways we choose to deal with such people? Conventional wisdom would say to not think about them.  Yet there are times when our thoughts and emotions can do anything but think about how they have hurt us, or how they could hurt us again.  Others would suggest some level of revenge or perhaps a form of passive aggression, heaping guilt trip upon guilt trip on those that we truly cannot stand. 

Yet Jesus gives us the only method which is truly effective in dealing with hard-to-get-along type of people - praying for them.  When you and I pray for people and bring them before the throne of God, it is very difficult to retain hatred, animosity and bitterness toward them. Does it mean that in praying for that person that we will become friends? Maybe not. However in praying for that person we may be able to avoid being unfriendly and un-Christ-like.  Perhaps the greatest example we see in the Bible of praying for one's enemies is Jesus at the cross in Luke 23:33-34 "When they came to the place called The Skull, there they crucified Him and the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left. 34 But Jesus was saying, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” And they cast lots, dividing up His garments among themselves."

Point of Application: I would encourage you and I to think about those people in our lives, both past and present, whom we could honestly place in the "enemy" category (or at least the "mild agitation" slot). As we pray for them, watch what changes to place inside of you in regards to your feelings towards that person.  Furthermore, watch what occurs when even if that person should continue to hurl insults at you, notice the change in your response.  Perhaps in praying for them you may find yourself choosing not to respond at all.  Perhaps too God could bring about a supernatural change in that person.  At the cross, a Roman Centurion confessed Jesus as the Son of God (Matthew 27:54) and a lowly thief confessed Him as the True King (Luke 23:42). Prayer can change things, people and us because of the God Who has ordained it for our benefit and Who chooses to work forth His will through it.  May you and I pray for those who despitefully use us and hurt us and pray like Jesus for our enemies.  

Praying Like Jesus: Decision making requires prayer

Hebrews 5:7 "In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety."

In today's post we consider two episodes in the life of Jesus that required great decisions to be made: choosing His Twelve Disciples and choosing to go to the cross. Though they are not the only instances, they represent some of the more important decisions that Jesus submitted to the Father in prayer.  

The first of these is found in Luke 6:12-13 "It was at this time that He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God. 13 And when day came, He called His disciples to Him and chose twelve of them, whom He also named as apostles". Jesus' decision of these men was prefaced by prayer. Why? As God Jesus would had known whom He was going to choose to be the ones to take the Gospel throughout the world following His resurrection and ascension into Heaven.  Furthermore, He indicates in His high priestly prayer of John 17:6 that these men were the ones whom the Father had "given to Him". Eleven of them were to remain ever faithful to Jesus, with one (Judas Iscariot) defecting and eventually betraying our Lord.  In God's Sovereign plan, even Judas had a place in the overall plan to bring our Lord to the cross. (John 13:18; Acts 2:23-24)  With that being said, Luke reminds us that Jesus at the same time chose to be a man and execute decisions such as the choosing of the twelve as a man.  In His humanity, Jesus Christ prayed all night to His Father, indicating His desire to do everything according to the Father's will.  The question that you and I need to ask is how willing are we to submit our decisions to the throne of God in prayer?

The second major decision we will consider in which we see Jesus submitting a major decision is in Luke 22:39-46 "And He came out and proceeded as was His custom to the Mount of Olives; and the disciples also followed Him. 40 When He arrived at the place, He said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” 41 And He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and began to pray, 42 saying, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.” 43 Now an angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him. 44 And being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground.45 When He rose from prayer, He came to the disciples and found them sleeping from sorrow, 46 and said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you may not enter into temptation.” As God Jesus had already agreed with the Father in eternity to come to earth and pay the price for our salvation. (Hebrews 10:5-10) As man, Jesus would need to willingly affirm to the Father what He had already agreed to do in eternity - namely to go to the cross. This decision included prayer. Was Jesus just going through the motions, even though He knew what needed to be done? No. Rather as our perfect human representative, He recognized that God ordained prayer as a means of fulfilling His will.  Jesus had to not only be able, but willing to go to the cross.  Prayer enables our "chooser" - the will - to be brought into alignment with God's purposes.

Point of application: What major decision are you facing in life? You and I are the sum total of our choices. Jesus exemplified the important truth of submitting our decisions to God in prayer.  Think of your prayer time before the throne as a time to examine that decision under God's search light.  Often when we pray about our decisions, great or small, clarity and insight are often found and we come out of prayer having certainty about what we need to do.  Jesus never presumed on God, meaning He never attempted anything, no matter how noble or even Godly, on the basis of assumption.  Rather Jesus did everything He did based upon His relationship and fellowship with the Father.  May you and I submit our decision making to prayer and apply prayer to our decision making.  Only when we have put prayers to our feet can we then know how to put feet to our prayers.