John 17:1-5 Jesus
spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the
hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, as
You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal
life to as many as You have given Him. And this is eternal life,
that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You
have sent. I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the
work which You have given Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Me
together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before
the world was.”
A few weeks ago, Pastor Kyle
continued in our Sunday sermon series through the book of John and preached on
Jesus’ prayer in John chapter 15. He stated that prayer is the vehicle that God
gave us to connect and reconnect with Him daily. He asked, if you were dying,
who and what would you pray for? Kyle told us three important points about
Jesus’ prayers. (1) Jesus’ prayers were relatively short and from the heart.
The most effective prayers are simple, yet holy, on topic and to the point. His
prayers were short and sweet, yet constant and continuous with His heavenly
Father; structured, but unscripted. So should our prayers be. Matthew
6:7-8 “When you pray, do not
keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of
their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you
need before you ask him.”
Luke 11:1-4 One
day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples
said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his
disciples.” He said to them, “When you pray, say: “‘Father, hallowed
be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily
bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins
against us. And lead us not into temptation.’”
(2) Jesus’ prayers focused
on praise and relational connection with the Father, who art in Heaven. Give
Almighty God glory first. As a child of God, prayerfully approach the throne
with boldness. Hebrews 4:14-16 tells
us, “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended
into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we
profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with
our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we
are—yet he did not sin. Let us then 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.” Pray for the Lord to help you to glory Him and see the
things of God in your life. It is blessed assurance that we can come to our
heavenly Father any time and in any place, knowing the 24 hours a day and seven
days a week, He is waiting and wanting to connect and commune with us.
Romans 8:26 “Likewise
the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should
pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for
us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”
(3) Jesus’ prayers almost
always had an outcome in mind. Pray for personal outcomes for your needs and
requests. The key is to know when God is saying “no and let go”. But Jesus
shows us in Jon chapter 17 the benefits in what and who to pay for. The late
Pastor and Theologian R.C. Sproul explained how Christians often use a simple
acrostic as a guide to prayer: A.C.T.S. Each of the letters in this
acrostic stands for one of the key elements of prayer: (A) Adoration (C) Confession
(T) Thanksgiving (S) Supplication. But not only does this acrostic
remind us of the elements of prayer, it shows us the priority we ought to give
to each. The first element of prayer should be adoration, or praise.
The Psalms, which are inspired samples of godly prayer, are heavily weighted on
the side of adoration. I’ve noticed over many years that as we grow in the
discipline and in the delight of prayer, it seems that we naturally spend more
and more of our time on this first element. Second, prayer should
include confession of our sin; as we remember who we are when we come
into God’s presence, we see that we have come short of His holiness and have
need of His forgiveness. Third, when we pray, we should always
give thanks, remembering the grace and mercy God has shown toward us.
Fourth, prayer rightly includes supplication or petition, bringing our
requests for the needs of others and ourselves to God. I think this is a
helpful acrostic for remembering both the elements and the priorities of
prayer. Unfortunately, we often spell our prayer life something
like S.C.A.T., because we start with supplication and spend very little
time, if any, on adoration, confession, and thanksgiving.
Let’s continue Pastor Kyle’s
message on Jesus’ prayer in the next post.
In Christ, Brian
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