As we go through this blog series, we’ll look at several specific prayers of Jesus and listen in on what He said when talking to the Father. Our first step though will be to look at the model prayer – the Lord’s Prayer – and then instances in which the Bible tells us that Jesus prayed, but not what He prayed.
The Lord’s Prayer is Jesus’s master class on how to approach God through prayer. We’ll cover it briefly here, but I encourage you to spend some time meditating on it yourself (Matthew 6, Luke 11). He starts with, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name” – acknowledging that God is God, we are not, and He is the perfect Father. Next is, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” – again getting us to recognize that God’s ways are higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8-9) and He has a plan. “Give us today our daily bread” – reminding us that God is the provider of all we need, when we need it. Fourth, “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” – admitting that we are sinners who need to be forgiven and who need to offer forgiveness. Finally, “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one” – asking for protection and deliverance from the evil in our world.
We have around a dozen instances in which the gospels reference Jesus praying but do not relay what he said. The first type of prayer we’ll look at are the prayers of blessing or gratitude. We have four of these prayers and they all occur before a meal. Luke 9:16 tells us that Jesus said a blessing over the five loaves and two fish at the feeding of the 5,000. Jesus offered thanks before feeding the 4,000 as well (Mark 8:6). Possibly the most famous blessing of a meal is the one we commemorate every week as we remember the Lord’s Supper (Matthew 26:26-28). Finally, in Luke 24:30-31, Jesus started a meal with the travelers to Emmaus after his resurrection. He took the bread, blessed it, and then the travelers realized who he was. Clearly Jesus felt that thanking God for “our daily bread” and recognizing God as the provider of all was important. I confess that I grow weary of praying before every single meal but those few moments of pause can be just what God uses to realign my heart to Him and refocus my mind.
The second type of prayer we see from Jesus is one of solitude. There are a few records in the gospels in which Jesus had been praying or went to pray on his own. In the first chapter of Mark, Jesus has been healing people and driving out demons when Mark stops the action, tells us that Jesus got up early and went off to pray (verse 35). Luke 6:12 records how Jesus prayed all night long before calling the 12 disciples. Matthew 14, Mark 6, and John 6 all include the story of Jesus withdrawing to pray between feeding the 5,000 and walking on water. Finally, Luke 5:16 shows us how habitual this was for Jesus: “But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” Jesus frequently left the demands and complexities of life to sit with his Father and reconnect. If Jesus, fully God while fully man, needed to realign himself with God in quiet, one-on-one time, how much more important is it for us to make the time in our schedules to convene with God? Jesus directly states the necessity of this quiet prayer time in Matthew 6:6 before he gives the Lord’s Prayer when he tells us to “go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father.”
The final set of prayers occur in conjunction with big moments in Jesus’ life. Jesus’ baptism, the transfiguration, and his ascension all occurred when Jesus was in a time of prayer. Luke 3 relays Jesus’ baptism with a detail that none of the other gospel writers include: “…And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove.” His baptism was not just a passive experience for Jesus with the Father and the Holy Spirit bending to earth. Jesus was in active conversation with the rest of the Godhead. Second, Luke records in chapter 9 that Jesus had taken Peter, James, and John up on a mountain to pray. While Jesus was praying, the dazzling transformation of the transfiguration occurred. Finally, Luke 24:50-51 tells us that as Jesus was blessing (praying for) the disciples, he ascended into heaven. This set of prayers shows two things: 1) God can do BIG things as we have our focus on Him in prayer and 2) we should have God as a central part of big moments and special occasions in our lives.
As we peer into Jesus’ prayer life, we can find direction for the prayers we offer. We need to recognize God’s provision regularly, have quiet solitude with God, bring Him in to the big moments in our lives, and give Him room to create big moments in our lives. If you’re not sure where to start or how to continue, look to Jesus’ model prayer. Use it word for word if needed or allow it to be a framework on which to build your own thoughts. God wants to hear from you today, sister. Make some time for Him.