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I hope and pray that over these last 10 days during our 15-Day Intercessor Prayer Challenge, you were able to stand in the gap for others, so that God could interced on their behalf as you were seeking God for deliverance, healing, miracle, reconcilation, restoration, supernatural breakthrough and salvation for your family members and loved ones, your businesses, place of employment and ministries, and your churches and communities. The prayers Jesus prayed give us insight into His nature, His heart, and His mission on earth. The prayers of Jesus also inform and encourage us in our own prayer lives. Far more important than where He prayed, when He prayed, and in what position He prayed is the fact that He prayed. The theme of His prayers is instructive for all of us.
Prayer was an integral part of Jesus’ time on earth, and He prayed regularly. “So He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed” Luke 5:16 (NKJV). If the Son incarnate found it necessary to commune with the Father frequently, how much more do we need to do so? Jesus faced persecution, trials, heartache, and physical suffering. Without regular and continual access to the throne of God, He would surely have found those events unbearable. In the same way, Christians must never neglect to approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. "Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need" Hebrews 4:16 (NKJV).
Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane just before His arrest. “Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, “Sit here while I go and pray over there.” And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.”He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “What! Could you not watch with Me one hour? Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”Again, a second time, He went away and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done.” And He came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy. So He left them, went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words. Then He came to His disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going. See, My betrayer is at hand"Matthew 26:36–46 (NKJV). He had asked His disciples to pray with Him, but they fell asleep instead. Jesus’ agonized prayer in the garden is a model of submission and sacrifice: “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will” (verse 39). Three times Jesus prayed this. Jesus set a great example of prayer for us.
