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Here, are some lessons from the prayer of Jesus at Gethsemane:
What is prayer?
Prayer is simply communication, conversation, fellowship with God that is borne out of the love of God with a consciousness of what God has already done in the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus.
Lesson One: Jesus prayed to the God he had a relationship with. Matthew 26:39, 42. Jesus began his prayer by calling God Father. He showed us right there, that we should pray not as an obligation (a religious one at that) but because we have a relationship with God. The word Father, explains a connection that exist between God and the one praying.
During the Old Covenant and in the Old Testament, the people of God did not have this close connection with God and didn’t really know him as Father. The writers of the Old Testament lay greater emphasis on our distance from God and the reserve we should feel before him. God is revealed more as separate from us and beyond us, and he is seen less as intimate and close to us. But in the New Testament, although God remains holy and majestic in our eyes, Jesus adds a strikingly clear emphasis on God as Father—both his Father and our Father (John 20:17). It is the Spirit of the Son who leads us into intimacy with God as our own Abba Father (Gal. 4:6). It is therefore with this understanding that we should approach God in prayer and if we know that we have a relationship with him, we must also realize that he is interested in hearing us pray and to answer our prayers; even as a way of being involved in our lives.
Lesson Two: Jesus prayed according to the will of God (Matthew 26:39, 42). Often, we are faced with difficult situations and even life threatening issues that we want to talk to God about. However, we must realize that we do not belong to ourselves. Our relationship with the Father shows that we belong to God. It also shows that there are provisions made according to the will of the Father for his children. Every good father has intentions which often are good for their children.
God has good intentions in his will for us. So when we go to him in prayer and like Jesus did, we must look pass the overwhelming circumstances and seek his will in prayer as well as pray his will for our lives. We can trust him to deliver us and to come through for us according to his good pleasures in his will for us. At the moment, it might not seem realistic or effective praying his will but we must refuse the temptation of praying our situations as there is no faith in them to give us victory/the answers we need. Since we need answers and we want God to fix things up, let us pray his will (the word) for our lives.
Lesson Three: Jesus took his burdens to God in prayer (Matthew 26:36-39). In stead of thinking, complaining or worrying over his burdens, Jesus took them all to God in prayer. Philippians 4:6-7, tells us how to address the things that come against. We must learn to take whatever that is before us to God in prayer and leave it there with him.
It is already looking or seeming overwhelming. Why worry over it? Why allow it be your nightmare and fixed thought. We can turn to the Lord in prayer and trust him to fix things up.
Isaiah 38:2-6, Hezekiah got a very terrible news about his death but he immediately turned to the Lord in prayer and that report was changed. God is able to step in, lift burdens off our shoulders and strengthen us with the might that comes from him even when we need to go through a phase in life. There’s always an input to get from God. He never refuses us help when we need his help or intervention. Let us always create the time to pray about things that trouble us and not try to fix things all by ourselves.