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What Jesus Teaches About Prayer
“Here on earth, Christ as man came to reveal what prayer is. To pray in the name of Christ, we must pray as He prayed on earth, as He taught us to pray, in union with Him, as He now prays in heaven. We must study Him in love and accept Him in faith as our Example, our Teacher, and our Intercessor.”
Jesus has so much to teach us about prayer. He is our example, our teacher and the greatest intercessor throughout all of history. No wonder his disciples called upon Him to teach them to pray. He taught by example, He taught by passion, and He taught by words. The heartbeat of Jesus was for prayer and communion with the Father. Take a moment, be silent and imagine the King of Kings coming into your home and sitting down in your living room. Lean over carefully so as to catch His every word, and ask Him, “Jesus, what are the most important things we must personally learn about prayer? The following are nine lessons that Jesus wants you to personally incorporate into your own prayer life.
Prayer Lessons from Jesus
“‘Lord, teach us to pray.’ No one can teach like Jesus. A pupil needs a teacher who knows his work, who has the gift of teaching, who in patience and love will descend to the pupil’s needs. Blessed be God! Jesus is all this and much more. It is Jesus, praying Himself, who teaches us to pray. He knows what prayer is. He learned it amid the trials and tears of His earthly life. In heaven it is still His beloved work. His life there is prayer. Nothing delights Him more than to find those whom He can take with Him into the Father’s presence, clothing them with power to pray down God’s blessing to those around them, training them to be His fellow workers in the intercession by which the Kingdom is to be revealed on earth.”
Here are nine fantastic lessons on prayer by Jesus. He was the greatest, most outstanding example of prayer for all of us. His life and His words on prayer are vital for a victorious prayer life. It would do us much good to practice these lessons. If Jesus taught them, they are absolutely critical to a successful prayer life.
· Pray with Sincerity - We must pray in spirit and truth to God. The Pharisees did not pray from the heart but only to be seen by man. Their lives contradicted their prayers.
God wants us to pray with sincere hearts.
“Yet a time is coming, and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23-24).
· Pray in Humility - God hates pride and selfish ambition. He loves the meek and lowly.
A good example of both the proud and the lowly is the story about the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. The Tax Collector found favor with God.
“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ ‘I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted’” (Luke 18:13-14).
· Pray with Faith - God wants us to pray in faith. Without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). Great intercessors are those who pray with great faith without doubting.
“But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does” (James 1:6-8).
· Pray with a Forgiving Heart - We can’t expect to be forgiven by God unless we are willing to forgive others. Forgiveness was a major theme in the teachings of Jesus.
“For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins (Matthew 6:14-16).
· Pray with Persistence - God wants us to pray with determination. We should have the attitude that we will pray persistently until God answer. This can be seen by example in Luke 11:5-10 and in Luke 18:1-8.
“Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up…” (Luke 18:1-8).
· Pray in Privacy - Jesus often went away to lonely places to pray to His Father in solitude. Often He would go out into the hills to pray (Luke 6:12). We must also do the same and cultivate that alone time with the Father.
“When you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you” (Matthew 6:6).
· Pray in Accordance with God’s Will - We must know God’s will when we pray. If we abide in Him and His words abide in us, we can pray with assurance and know that He will answer our prayers.
“This is the assurance we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of him” (I John 5:14-15).
· Pray in the Name of Jesus - We should pray to the Father, in the Spirit, through the Son. Praying in Jesus’ name means that we are praying as he would pray if in our place.
“And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it” (John 14:13-14).
· Pray with Fasting - Jesus emphasized fasting with prayer as a means of power in the spiritual life. Every believer should practice some form of secret fasting.
”When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you” (Matthew 6:17-18).
“Lord Jesus, enroll my name among those who confess that they don’t know how to pray as they should, and who especially ask You for a course of teaching in prayer. Lord, teach me to be patient in Your school, so that You will have time to train me. I am ignorant of the wonderful privilege and power of prayer, of the need for the Holy Spirit to be the spirit of prayer. Lead me to forget my thought of what I think I know, and make me kneel before You in true teachableness and poverty of spirit.”
As you study these lessons, carefully evaluate where you are in your prayer life. Are you like Jesus? Which one does God want you to personally work on this year? Let us each pray and ask God to help us to become better prayer warriors and worshippers for the glory of God and the furtherance of His Kingdom.
Lord, teach us to pray. May we grow deeper in prayer this year than we ever have grown before. You are showing us how important it is to pray. We are experiencing a greater grace for prayer, and you are bringing us into higher dimensions. Teach us to pray according to your will. Teach us to pray with sincerity and in humility. Help us to be forgiving towards everyone. Help us to be persistent in our prayers and never give up. Increase our faith to pray big prayers, supernatural prayers in Your name. Give us the discipline to get alone with you even when others don’t. Help us to practice fasting on a regular basis. Lord, teach us to pray, and help us to teach others to pray by example and words. We ask this in the Name of Jesus. Amen
“Christ’s life and work, His suffering and death were all prayer. They were all dependent on God, trust in God, receiving from God, surrender to God. Your redemption, believer, is a redemption brought about by prayer and intercession, because your Christ is a praying Christ. The life He lives for you, the life He lives in you, is a praying life that delights to wait on God and receive everything from Him. To pray in His name is to pray as He prayed. Christ is our example because He is our head, our Savior, and our Life.” Quotes by Andrew Murray
Article written by:
Debbie Przybylski
