The Prayer Life Of Jesus
Have you ever wondered why Jesus’s ministry was so effective? A lot of us (myself included) believe that Jesus’s ministry was so successful because He was God incarnate and by virtue of this, it was easier for him to walk on water and raise the dead. But having studied the Word of God, particularly Jesus’s 3-year journey, I have come to believe that the success of His ministry was as a result of His consistent and intentional prayer life.
Christ was in full communion with His Father before He was born, and after His birth as a man He continued this fellowship in a life of prayer. He prayed because He was a man, dependent on and made for fellowship with God. His personal sinlessness did not detract from His human sense of dependence upon His Father for everything.
Scripture intentionally highlights how Jesus would often seek solitude to commune with His Father, He would also pray before each miracle as well as throughout His fellowship with His disciples. Prayer was an integral part of Jesus’s life and ministry and it is imperative we emulate it as faithfully as He did.
A Prayer Formula To help Guide us To Respond to God’s Already Initiated Love For Us
I find it interesting that out of everything the disciples could have asked Jesus to teach them, they asked Christ to teach them how to pray (Luke 11:1-4). The prayer Jesus taught them (The Lord’s prayer) highlighted specific priorities, which I have listed below as a guideline for how we are expected to pray.
- Start With Praise & Worship: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.
- Pray for God’s Will to Be Done in your life and those around you: Thy will be done on heaven as it is on earth
- Pray For Your Needs: Give us our daily bread
- Confess Sin & Ask For Forgiveness: Forgive us our trespasses
- Ask For Help Forgiving Others: As we forgive those who trespass against us
- Pray For Safety, Protection & Deliverance: Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
- End With Praise & Worship: Thy is the kingdom, power & glory, forever and ever. Amen”
Christ’s example and devotion challenges and humbles us, leading us to plead for more grace. I hope this guide is able to help us study the perfect prayer life of Christ Jesus, so that we may learn to emulate it daily.
