Jesus Set an Example of Proper Prayer
“And He[Jesus] came out and proceeded as was His custom to the Mount of Olives; and the disciples also followed Him. When He arrived at the place, He said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” And He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and began to pray, saying, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.” Now an angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him. And being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground.” (Luke 22:39-44)
1. Jesus Set an Example of Proper Prayer
Luke 22:39-44 portray a scene in which Jesus prayed at Gethsemane the night before He was to carry the cross to open the path to salvation for all mankind. These verses tell us many aspects on the kind of attitude and heart we ought to have when praying.
How did Jesus pray so that He not only carried the heavy cross but also overcame the enemy devil? What kind of heart did Jesus take when He prayed so that God was pleased with His prayer and dispatched an angel from heaven to strengthen Him?
Based on these verses, let us delve into the proper attitude in praying and the kind of prayer with which God is pleased, and I urge each of you to examine your own life of prayer.
- Make it a rule to pray
God told us to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17) and promised us to give us when we ask to Him (Matthew 7:7). Although it is right to pray continually and ask all the time, most people pray only when they want something or have problems.
Yet, Jesus came out and proceeded as was His custom to the Mount of Olives (Luke 22:39). Prophet Daniel continued kneeling on his knees three times a day, praying and giving thanks before his God, as he had been doing previously (Daniel 6:10), and two of Jesus’ disciples Peter and John set apart a certain time of the day to pray (Acts 3:1).
We must follow Jesus’ example and develop a habit of setting apart a specific time and praying continually everyday. God is especially pleased with people’s dawn prayer by which they commit everything to God at the beginning of each day and nighttime prayer by which they give thanks for God’s protection during the day at the end of each day. Through these prayers you can receive His great power.
- Kneel down to pray
When you kneel, the heart with which you pray stands upright and you show reverence to the people to whom you speak. It is only natural for anyone who prays to God to kneel down when he prays.
Jesus the Son of God prayed with a humble attitude as He knelt down to pray to the almighty God. King Solomon (1 Kings 8:54), the apostle Paul (Acts 20:36), and Deacon Stephen who died a martyr (Acts 7:60) all knelt down when they prayed.
When we ask our parents or someone with authority for a favor or things that we desire, we become nervous and take every precaution to prevent ourselves from making mistakes. How, then, should we appear slovenly in mind and body if we know that we are speaking to God the Creator? Kneeling down is an expression of your heart that reveres God and trusts in His power. We must tidy up ourselves and humbly kneel down when we pray.
- Pray in accordance with the will of God
Jesus prayed to God, “Yet not My will, but Yours be done” (Luke 22:42). Jesus the Son of God came to the earth to die on a wooden cross even though He was faultless and blameless. That is why He prayed, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me.” But He knew the will of God that was to save all mankind through one individual, and prayed not for His own good but only in accordance with God’s will.
1 Corinthians 10:31 tells us, “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” If we ask for something that is not for the glory of God but rather the lustful desires of sinful human nature, we are not making proper requests; we must only pray in accordance with God’s will.
Moreover, God tells us to keep in mind what we find in James 4:2-3, “You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.” So, we need to look back and see whether we are praying only for our own good.
- Pray with earnest and all your strength
In Luke 22:44, we can find how sincerely Jesus prayed. “And being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground.”
The climate at Gethsemane where Jesus prayed would cool down at nighttime so that it would have been difficult even to sweat. Now, can you imagine how much Jesus strained Himself in sincere and earnest prayer that His sweat became like drops of blood falling upon the ground? If Jesus had prayed in silence, could He have prayed so earnestly to sweat while praying? As Jesus cried out to God passionately and earnestly, His sweat became “like drops of blood falling to the ground.”
In Genesis 3:17 God tells Adam, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.” Before man was cursed, he lived a life of abundance with everything God had provided for him. When sin entered him through his disobedience to God, his communication with his Creator came to an end, and only through painful toil could he now eat.
If what is possible for us can be achieved only through painful toil, what are we to do when we ask God for something we cannot do? Please remember that only with crying out to God in prayer, painful toil, and sweat can we receive what we desire from God. Moreover, keep in mind how God told us painful toil and effort were necessary to bear fruit and how Jesus Himself earnestly toiled and wrestled in prayer. Keep these in mind, do exactly what Jesus did, and pray in a way that is pleasing to God.
We have thus far examined how Jesus, who set an example of proper prayer, prayed. If Jesus, who possessed all authority, prayed to an extent of setting an example, with what kind of attitude should we, God’s mere creatures, pray? The outward appearance and attitude of one’s prayer express his heart. Therefore, the kind of heart with which we pray may be equally important as the attitude with which we pray.
2. Essentials to the Kind of Prayer with which God is Pleased
With what kind of heart should we pray so that it is pleasing to God and He will answer our prayer?
- You must pray with all your heart
We have learned through the way Jesus prayed that prayer from one’s heart stems from the attitude with which he prays to God. We can tell from the attitude, with what kind of heart one prays.
Take a look at Jacob’s prayer in Genesis 32. With the Jabbok River ahead, Jacob found himself in a predicament. Jacob could not go back because he had made a deal with his uncle Laban that he would not cross a boundary line called Galeed. He could not cross the Jabbok where, on the other side, his brother Esau was waiting with 400 men to capture Jacob. It was at such a desperate time when Jacob’s pride and ego on which he had been relying was utterly destroyed. Jacob finally realized that only when he committed his everything to God and moved His heart could his problems be solved. As Jacob wrestled in prayer to the point of having his hip joint broken, he finally received God’s answer. Jacob was able to move God’s heart and reconcile with his brother who had been waiting to deal with him.
Take a close look at 1 Kings 18 in which Prophet Elijah received God’s “fiery answer” and gave great glory to God. When idolatry was thriving during King Ahab’s reign, Elijah single-handedly contended with 450 prophets of Baal and defeated them by bringing down God’s answers before the Israelites and bore witness to the living God.
This was the time when Ahab thought Prophet Elijah was to blame for the three-and-a-half-year drought inflicted upon Israel and was looking for the prophet. However, when God ordered Elijah to go before Ahab, the prophet quickly obeyed. As the prophet went before the king who had been looking to kill him, boldly spoke what God was speaking through him, and reversed everything with prayer of faith that contained not one bit of doubt, a work of repentance was manifested for people who had been worshipping idols as they returned to God. Moreover, Elijah crouched down on the earth and put his face between his knees when he earnestly prayed that he would bring down God’s work on the earth and put an end to the drought that had tormented the land for three and a half years (1 Kings 18:42).
Our God reminds us in Ezekiel 36:36-37, “I, the LORD, have spoken and will do it. Thus says the Lord GOD, This also I will let the house of Israel ask Me to do for them.” In other words, even though God had promised Elijah a heavy rain on Israel, the heavy rain could not have fallen without Elijah’s earnest prayer from his heart. Prayer from our heart can truly move and impress God, who will promptly answer us and allow us to give glory to Him.
- You must cry out to God in prayer
God promises us He would listen to us and meet us when we call upon Him and come and pray to Him and seek Him with all our heart (Jeremiah 29:12-13; Proverbs 8:17). In Jeremiah 33:3 He also promises us, “Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.” The reason God tells us to cry out to Him in prayer is because when we cry out to Him in prayer in loud voice, we will be able to pray with all our heart. In other words, when we cry out in prayer, we will be severed from worldly thoughts, fatigue, and drowsiness and our own thoughts will find no place in our mind.
Yet, many churches today believe and teach their congregations that being quiet inside the sanctuaries is “godly” and “holy.” When some brethren cry out to God in a loud voice, the rest of the congregation are quick to think they are improper and even condemn such people to be heretic. This, however, has been caused without knowing God’s Word and His will.
Early churches, which witnessed great manifestations of God’s power and revival, could please God in the fullness of the Holy Spirit as they lifted their voices to God with one accord (Acts 4:24). Even today, we can see how countless miraculous signs and wonders are displayed and how they experience great revival at churches that cry out to God in a loud voice and follow and live by God’s will.
“Crying out to God” refers to praying to God with an earnest prayer and in a raised voice. Through such prayer, brothers and sisters in Christ can become full of the Holy Spirit and, as the interfering forces of the enemy devil are driven away, they can receive answers to their prayer and spiritual gifts.
In the Bible are countless records of instances in which Jesus and many forefathers of faith cried out to God in a raised voice and received His answers.
Let us examine a few examples in the Old Testament.
In Exodus 15:22-25 is a scene in which the Israelites, after leaving Egypt much earlier, have just safely crossed the Red Sea on foot after Moses’ faith parted it. For Israelites’ faith was small, however, they grumbled against Moses when they could not find anything to drink as they crossed the Desert of Shur. When Moses “cried out” to God, the bitter water of Marah turned sweet.
In Numbers 12 is a scene in which Moses’ sister Miriam became leprous after she talked against him. When Moses cried out to God, saying, “O God, heal her, I pray!” God healed Miriam of her leprosy.
In 1 Samuel 7:9 we read, “Samuel took a suckling lamb and offered it for a whole burnt offering to the LORD; and Samuel cried to the LORD for Israel and the LORD answered him.”
1 Kings 17 is a story of a Zarephath widow who showed Elijah the servant of God hospitality. When her son became ill and died, Elijah called to God and said, “O LORD my God, I pray You, let this child’s life return to him.” God heard the voice of Elijah, and the life of the child returned to him and he revived (1 Kings 17:21-22). When God heard Elijah’s cry, we find that God answered the prophet’s prayer.
Jonah, who had been swallowed by and confined inside a great fish because of his disobedience to God, also received salvation as he cried out to God in prayer. In Jonah 2:2 we find that when he prayed, “I called out of my distress to the LORD, And He answered me. I cried for help from the depth of Sheol; You heard my voice.” God heard his cry and saved him. No matter how a situation in which we find ourselves may be as dire and distressing as that of Jonah, God will give us the desires of our heart, answer us, and give us solutions to problems when we repent of our wrongdoings in His eyes and cry out to Him.
The New Testament is also filled with scenes in which people cried out to God.
In John 11:43-44, we find that Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth,” and the man who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. It would have been no difference to the dead Lazarus whether Jesus called out in a loud voice or whispered to him. Yet, Jesus was calling out to God in a loud voice. Jesus brought Lazarus, whose body had been in the tomb for 4 days, back to life by His prayer according to God’s will and displayed God’s glory.
Mark 10:46-52 tell us the healing of a blind beggar named Bartimaeus: “And as He[Jesus] was leaving Jericho with His disciples and a large crowd, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the road. When he heard that it was Jesus the Nazarene, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Many were sternly telling him to be quiet, but he kept crying out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” And Jesus stopped and said, “Call him here.” So they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take courage, stand up! He is calling for you.” Throwing aside his cloak, he jumped up and came to Jesus. And answering him, Jesus said, “What do you want Me to do for you?” And the blind man said to Him, “Rabboni, I want to regain my sight!” And Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and began following Him on the road.”
In Acts 7:59-60, as Deacon Stephen was being stoned to die a martyr, he called on the Lord and said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” Then falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!”
And it is read in Acts 4:23-24; 31, “When they [Peter and John] had been released, they went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them. And when they heard this, they lifted their voices to God with one accord. And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness.”
When you cry out to God, you can become a true witness of Jesus Christ and manifest the power of the Holy Spirit.
God told us to cry out to Him even when we are fasting. If we spend much of our fasting time sleeping from fatigue, we will receive no answers from God. God promises in Isaiah 58:9, “Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; You will cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’” According to His promise, if we cry out when we fast, grace and power from above will descend upon us and we will be victorious and receive God’s answers.
With “The Parable of the Persistent Widow,” Jesus asked us rhetorically, “Now, will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them?” and told us to cry out in prayer (Luke 18:1-8).
Therefore, as Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:18, “For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished,” when God’s children pray, it is only natural for them to cry out in prayer. This is God’s command. For His law dictates that we are to eat the fruit of our toil, we can receive God’s answers when we call out to Him.
Some people may retort, basing their claims on Matthew 6:6-8, and ask, “Do we have to cry out to God when He already knows what we need before we even ask?” or “Why cry out when Jesus said to pray in secret in my room with the door closed?” Yet, nowhere in the Bible will you find passages referring to people’s praying in secret in the comfort of their rooms.
The true meaning of Matthew 6:6-8 is urging us to pray with all our heart. Enter your inner room and close the door behind you. If you were in a room that was private and quiet with the door closed, will you not be cut off from all outside contacts? Just as we will be cut off from all outside access in our own rooms with the door closed, Jesus in Matthew 6:6-8 is telling us to cut ourselves off all of our thoughts, worldly thoughts, worries, anxieties, and the like, and pray with all our heart.
Furthermore, Jesus told this story as a lesson for people to know that God does not listen to the prayer of the Pharisees and priests, who during Jesus’ time prayed in a loud voice to be commended and seen by others. We ought not to become proud of the quantity of our prayer. Instead, we must wrestle in our prayer with all our heart to Him who searches our hearts and minds, to the Almighty who knows all our needs and wants, and the One who is our “all in all.”
It is difficult to pray with all our heart through silent prayer. Try praying by meditation with your eyes closed at nighttime. You will soon discover yourself struggling against fatigue and worldly thoughts, instead of praying. When you grow weary from fending off sleep, you will fall asleep before you know it.
Instead of praying in the stillness of a quiet room, “He [Jesus] went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God”(Luke 6:12) and “In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there”(Mark 1:35). In his roof chamber, Prophet Daniel had windows open toward Jerusalem, and he continued kneeling on his knees three times a day, praying and giving thanks before his God (Daniel 6:10).
Peter went up on the roof to pray (Acts 10:9), and the apostle Paul went outside the gate to a riverside, where he was supposing that there would be a place of prayer and prayed at the place of prayer while he was staying in Philippi (Acts 16:13; 16). These people designated specific places to pray because they wanted to pray with all their heart.
You must pray in a way that your prayer can penetrate the forces of the enemy devil the ruler of the kingdom of the air and be delivered to the throne above. Only then will you be filled with the Holy Spirit, have your temptations be driven away, and receive answers to all your problems big and small.
- Pray with a Specific Purpose
Some people may plant trees for good timber. Others may plant trees for fruit. Still others may plant trees to use the wood in creating a beautiful garden. If one planted trees with no particular purpose, before saplings grow tall and old he may neglect his trees because he can become preoccupied with his other work.
Having a clear purpose in any endeavor propels that endeavor and brings quicker and better results and achievements. Without a clear purpose, however, an endeavor may not be able to withstand even a small obstacle because without any direction, there are only doubts and resignation.
We must have a clear purpose when we pray before God. We have been promised to receive from God anything we ask when we are confident before Him (1 John 3:21-22), and when the purpose of our prayer is clear, we would be able to pray more earnestly with greater perseverance. Our God will, when He sees there is nothing to be condemned in our hearts, provide for us everything we need. We must always keep in mind the purpose of our prayer and be able to pray in a way that is pleasing to God.
- You must pray by faith
For the measure of faith varies for each person, every person will receive God’s answers according to his or her faith. When people first accept Jesus Christ and open up their hearts, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in them and God seals them as His children. This is when they possess faith the size of a mustard seed.
As they keep the Lord’s Day holy and keep praying, strive to keep God’s commandments, and live by His Word, their faith will grow. However, when they face temptations and suffering before they stand firmly on the rock of faith, they may question God’s power and become discouraged at times. However, once they stand on the rock of faith, they will not fall in any circumstances but look to God in faith and keep on praying. God sees such faith, and He will work for the good of those who love Him.
As they build up prayer upon prayer, with the power from above they will fight against sin and resemble our Lord. They will have a clear idea of our Lord’s will and obey it. This is faith that is pleasing to God and they will receive anything they ask. As people arrive at this measure of faith, they will experience the promise found in Mark 16:17-18, saying, “These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” People of great faith will receive answers according to their faith, and people with small faith will also receive answers according to their faith.
There are “self-centered faith” which you come to posses on your own, and “God-given faith.” “Self-centered faith” is not in agreement with one’s deed, but God-given faith is spiritual faith that is always accompanied by deed. The Bible tells us that faith is the assurance of things hoped for (Hebrews 11:1), but “self-centered faith” does not become a certainty. Even if one may possess faith to part the Red Sea and move a mountain, with the “self-centered faith,” he does not have a certainty for God’s answers.
God gives us “living faith” that is accompanied with deeds when we, according to our own faith in Him, obey, display our faith by deed, and pray. When we show Him the faith we already possess, that faith will combine with the “living faith” which He adds onto us, which in turn will become great faith by which we can receive God’s answers without delay. At times people experience undeniable certainty of His answer. This is faith given to them by God and if people possess such faith, they have already received their answers.
Therefore, without doubting even a little, we must place our trust in the promise Jesus gives us in Mark 11:24, “Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you.” And we must pray until we become certain of God’s answers, and receive whatever we ask for in prayer (Matthew 21:22).
- You must pray in love
Hebrews 11:6 tells us, “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” If we believe that all our prayers will be answered and are stored as our heavenly rewards, we would not find praying wearisome or difficult.
Just as Jesus wrestled in prayer to give life to mankind, if we pray with the love for other souls, we can pray earnestly, too. If you can pray with sincere love for others, that means you are able to put yourself in their shoes and see their problems as your own, thereby praying earnestly all the more.
For instance, suppose you pray for the construction of your church’s sanctuary. You must pray with the same heart with which you would pray for the construction of your own house. Just as you would ask in detail for the land, workers, materials, and the like for your own home, you must ask for every element and factor necessary for the construction of the sanctuary in detail. If you are praying for a patient, you must put yourself in his shoes and wrestle in prayer with all your heart as if his pain and suffering were your very own.
In order to achieve God’s will, Jesus habitually knelt down and wrestled in prayer in His love for God and His love for all mankind. As a result, the path to salvation opened and anyone who accepts Jesus Christ can now be forgiven of his sins and enjoy the authority to which he is entitled as a child of God.
Based on the way Jesus prayed and essentials to the kind of prayer with which God is pleased, we must examine our attitude and heart, pray with an attitude and a heart that are pleasing to God, and receive from Him everything we ask for in prayer.