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The Priority of Prayer:
Prayer was the priority in Jesus’ life, for He considered it more important than physical rest and He was commonly pictured praying all night. “Now it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God” Luke 6:12 (NKJV). Talking with the Father took priority over His social activity. The Bible often refers to Jesus going off alone to be with the Father. Jesus also made prayer a priority over His physical appetite, many times He fasted for long periods of time, withdrawing from physical food to release spiritual power.
“And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there” Matthew 14:23 (NKJV). “Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed” Mark 1:35 (NKJV). “So He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed” Luke 5:16 (NKJV). Prayer was the primary communication link between the Father and Him, however, every major event and every minor decision in Jesus’ life was shrouded with prayer. Jesus understood that every effective ministry needed the present of prayer. Ministry to God must come before ministry to people, “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” 1 Peter 2:9. The role of the priest is to minister first to God; then to the people. The way that we minister to God, like Jesus, is by praising, worshiping and communing with Him in prayer and meditation. The way that we minister to the people is by allowing the overflow of what we have received in our time along with the Heavenly Father pour out into the lives of others.
Prayer is doing something. Prayer will make a tremendous difference. The amazing fact is that the sovereign God has chosen to work in response to the prayers of His people. Prayer that all people may be reached with the gospel should pervade the life of the church. Most people focus on prayer only in response or reference to how it works, not what it is for. Prayer for us has become a means to an end and that end is usually a selfish one, which is not what the Father intended prayer to be. One scholar said, “Men usually work their prayers like sailors do their pumps when the ship leaks.” Many cases that’s generally true. Nevertheless, prayer is sort of a last-ditch effort, for its kind of like a spiritual parachute. Many believers are glad it’s there, but they hope they’ll never have to use it. Prayer has a way of being given the wrong perspective because we see it our way instead of God’s way. But as we’ve been learning in our study of the disciples’ prayer given by our Lord here as a model for all prayers, prayer is not primarily for us. It is for God. Prayer is not so much to gain for us what we think we need as it is to give to God an opportunity to manifest His glory, not only in a believer’s life, but a non–believers. Prayer is for God, in which only incidentally and as a by–product, is it for us. Because the Holy Spirit indwells us, because we are made in God’s image, to think what he thinks, to feel what he feels, and to do what he does, because our behavior is supposed to be a reflection on who he is. For Jesus, it is his number one priority in prayer.