Categories: Bible Lessons Leave a comment

#DailyDevotion If Jesus Needs To Pray, What About You?

#DailyDevotion If Jesus Needs To Pray, What About You?

Matthew 1422Jesus quickly made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side while He dismissed the people. 23After sending them away, He went up the hill to be alone and pray. When it got late, He was there alone.

You might remember at the beginning of this chapter Jesus was told his cousin John had been killed by Herod.  He got in a boat with his disciples to get away for a bit but when he arrived to where he was going, a large crowd had followed him there so he never got any alone time to grieve the death of John.

Right after he finishes feeding the crowd, immediately the Greek says, he makes his disciples to get into the boat to go ahead of him to the other side and then he dismisses the crowd. Once he has sent both disciples and crowds away he went up the hill to be alone and pray. It apparently was pretty lat by the time he got around to do this. It had been evening already when he fed the crowds.

Now why is this important? Jesus, though he is the Son of God, needs time to grieve and time to pray as a human. If Jesus needs time to grieve and pray how much more so do we fallen, weak creatures need time apart from others to do this? We need time alone to pray to God. Jesus is our example and our place of prayer. We are made for prayer. I might note that Jesus never tells his disciple “if” you pray but “when” you pray. It is expected as his disciples we will spend time in prayer. If you cannot think of anything to pray, you always have the “Our Father” or “Lord’s Prayer.” This prayer is something we are given to pray. It is also a model of prayer. We may note it is not a selfish prayer as it starts with “our” and continues with “us”. We pray it not only for ourselves but for and with the whole Christian Church. The next thing we might notice about the prayer is the first few petitions deal with God, his will, his kingdom and his name. Then it deals with our physical needs and our spiritual needs. Your individual prayers may follow this example besides just praying the prayer he taught us.

No doubt Jesus prayed the Psalms. He may have prayed Psalms 4 and 91. He also may have prayed psalm 23, 110, 111, 114, 133, 134, 6, 38, 46, 51, 116-18, 126, 130, 135, 136, 139, 141-143 and 145 as examples of particularly prayed Psalms for the evening into late at night. Psalm 44 “Tremble and don’t sin. Think about it on your beds and weep.” and 8 “ I can lie down and sleep in peace, because You alone, O LORD, enable me to live without fear.” can help us to settle down for the day in the peace of the LORD.  You may look at the other Psalms and find examples in them why they are good evening and into the night prayers.

Jesus is also our place of prayer. Wherever the LORD places his name that is where we are to go to offer our prayers, petitions, supplications, and thanksgiving. We need not go to the temple in Jerusalem. Jesus says in Matthew 1820 “Where two or three have been brought together in My name, there I am among them.” So we may gather together in prayer and pray for each other. Jesus also says in John, 1623 “I tell you the truth, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you.”

Heavenly Father, as Jesus needed to pray to you for his daily needs so too we need to come to you in prayer. Grant us your Holy Spirit that we pray to you aright and receive from all that need of body and soul. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Share this post
Rev. Guillaume J. S. Williams, Sr.

The Reverend Guillaume Williams is the Pastor of Hope Lutheran Chapel of Osage Beach, Missouri. His pastoral ministry with Hope began in 2005 where he preaches the Christ crucified.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *