Have you ever thought about how Jesus feels about your prayer requests? I rarely do. I normally just pray, and usually my prayer is asking him for things. Most often I pray for my family. I rarely take a step back and think, “Am I praying for the right things? Am I praying for the wrong things?” I rarely wonder, in other words, about the quality of my prayer. I most often assume that what I am praying for and how I am praying is good.
But what if Jesus were to do an evaluation of my prayer? What if he came to me with a printout of my recent prayers, sat me down and said, “Ok, Joel, let’s take a look at your recent prayers together. Let’s see how you did.” I think I would feel very nervous at that point. Are my prayers okay? Am I praying how Jesus wants me to pray? What if I am praying for things or praying in a way that he would not approve of?
Wait. Is Jesus even like that? Does he care what I pray for and how I pray? Isn’t he gracious? Yes, of course he is gracious. Massively gracious. His posture toward us is not punitive or judgmental. It is not as though he will only listen to us if we have our prayers just right, with the right words, and the right heart motivation. If we had to pray perfectly for Jesus to hear us, my guess is that very few prayers would be heard.
But I believe this scenario that I am creating, that of Jesus sitting down with us and evaluating our prayers, still has value. We should always be self-reflective, willing to learn, teachable and humble. I believe we should invite Jesus to evaluate us on a regular basis. That said, is it even possible that we can learn from Jesus how to pray?
Absolutely. Jesus taught his disciples to pray in Matthew 6:5-15. He even says in verse 9, “This, then, is how you should pray.” He then goes on to teach them the Lord’s Prayer, which I believe is both a model for prayer, giving us principles for how we can craft our own prayers, as well as specific prayer we can and should recite. Another time, Jesus told his disciples two parables about how they should pray (Luke 18:1-14), with consistency and persistence, as well as with humility. But I suspect that the primary way Jesus taught his disciples to pray was by his example. They watched him pray many times.
John 17 was one of those times Jesus’ disciples watched him pray. This coming week on the blog we will be studying Jesus’ prayer for his disciples and for those who will become his disciples through his disciples’ ministry. In John 17:6-26, we will be observing Jesus pray. How did he pray? What did he pray for? By observing Jesus, we can learn how to pray, and thus we can evaluate our prayers as he might. Jesus’ prayer in this case is fascinating. I think we need to pray more like he prays. So join me next week as we learn to pray from Jesus.
Photo by Ruben Hutabarat on Unsplash
Engaging Scripture 