Times Jesus Prayed- Part 2

We are looking in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke to see the times that Jesus prayed. It is interesting that Jesus prayed. I mean, he had taken on human flesh and all, but he was fully God and fully man. Did he really NEED to pray?

Evidently so, because he did.

In Part 1, we saw that Jesus prayed in times of success.

Today, we will see that he prayed when he had to make important choices- when he needed to know God’s will.

Luke 6 tells the story about Jesus working hard at his ministry after having accumulated a large team of disciples. They were accompanying him on his ministry work. However, he needed a smaller, core team that could travel everywhere he went and intimately learn the work of the Kingdom of God in an apprenticeship format.

He needed to choose 12 apostles. Out of the large following he had, which 12 should it be?

Jesus had an important choice to make. So he did an important thing. He went on another prayer retreat and prayed there all night long.

Luke 6:12,13 says:

¹²And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.

¹³And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples: and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles (biblegateway.com KJV).

Jesus prayed all night (following a lifestyle of prayer). When he came down from the mountain in the morning, he was sure that he knew God’s will for the choice of the 12 apostles.

Knowing God’s will for our choices does not come from a 5-minute request. It comes from a lifestyle of prayer punctuated by occasional intense and prolonged times of prayer.

When are the times you seek God for help with choices?

Prayer and Self- Esteem

Last Sunday, JD was speaking about Romans 12:3: For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourselves more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance to the measure of faith God has given you.(NIV)

He pointed out that many of us read into that verse that we, if we are humble, will think poorly of ourselves. However, JD challenged us to think about humility in the manner C.S. Lewis explained it: “Humility in not thinking little of yourself, but thinking of your self little”.

When we are downing ourselves (creating “low self-esteem”, as it were), we are in some ways criticizing our Maker. Take a look at these New International Bible verses JD quoted from the book Living on the Edge by Chip Ingram.

Thought: We should not criticize the Appearance our Maker gave us.

Psalm 139:13-17
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.  My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,  your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.  How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!

Thought: We should not reject the Belongingness our Maker created in us.

Romans 8:31-32
What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all — how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

Thought: We should not deny the Worthiness that our Maker placed in us through His Son.

Isaiah 61:10
I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

Thought: We should not doubt the Security of our Maker’s love for each of us.

Romans 8:38-39
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Thought: We should not forget God’s Competence in us (which makes us competent in what he has called us to do).

Philippians 2:13

For it it God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

Philippians 4:13

I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

Ephesians 2:10

For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Lovely verses. How do we connect with God’s truth for us? Can we submit to him in prayer and ask for his help in seeing ourselves as he sees us?

The Prayer of Petition

Prayer of Petition

When my firstborn was just three years old, he had a burning desire:

He wanted cowboy boots.

Those who have had three-year-old boys know that cowboy boots are an important part of developing a young man’s identity. (That is, if you are from the Deep Woods Down South.)

Every time we drove into town to the local JM Fields, he would see cowboy boots. “I need those boots,” he would matter-of-factly explain.

The only problem was that their $4 price tag was way above our budget back in those days. There was no hope for me to be able to get him those boots- kind of sad for a young mom.

So, I told him that he would have to pray about it. I sat with him while he bowed his little strawberry-blonde head and simply asked God for those cowboy boots.

Then a fun thing happened. A short time later, we were visiting a young couple from church. It was a nice visit and Micah had been very well behaved. As we were leaving, the wife handed him a gift- 4 dollar bills.

She had no idea what he had been praying, but he knew God had heard and answered his prayer. He got his cowboy boots.

I don’t think God was concerned about Micah’s prayer format. He just wanted to bless the kid.

The kid was blessed and praised God for it.

Can you think of a time God blessed you in answer to a request (“prayer of petition” is the theology word for it)? Did you feel like praising God?