Reply To: Prayer Discussion Board 1

[Paulpraze]

LESSONS FROM JESUS’S PRAYER IN GETHSEMANE
MATTHEW 26:36-46
Jesus, while He walked this earth, not only taught on the subject of prayer as seen in Matthew 6, but was a man given to prayer. According to Luke’s account on Jesus teaching His disciples to pray, their request to be taught came right after Jesus returned from one of His prayer sessions. Luke 11:1.
Prayer was indeed His lifestyle, it was a way for life for Him, it was a habit. It was not an occasional event but a practice.
Luke 22:39 (NKJV).
MATTHEW 26:36-46
A number of lessons can be learnt from Jesus’s prayer in Gethsemane.
1. According to Luke’s account in Luke 22:39 (NKJV), this activity of Jesus praying was a custom for Him. This was not a one off even that Jesus was attempting to carry, and required the help of His disciples in doing so. Prayer was a lifestyle for Him.
2. There are times or moments in a believer’s life, wen we need the strength and support fellow believers or brothers and sisters in Christ in the place of prayer. Needing help sometimes in prayer is clearly not something to be ashamed of. If Jesus needed their support system, so can would we and so can we. Proverbs 27:17.
It is however important to note, that not every believer is fit or qualified for this role in our lives. Jesus had more than twelve disciples, but only took three of them on this journey. Matthew 26:37-38.
3. Prayer requires us to be open and honest with our Heavenly Father. Jesus clearly demonstrates this truth as we see in Gethsemane. Matthew 26:39. He did not come before the Father in pretense. He was open and honest about His feelings about the task at hand.
One way for the believer to be able to demonstrate such openness with the Father is by being conscious of his or her righteousness in Christ, so that unlike Adam, if we fall as believers, we can still come boldly before our Father. Hebrews 4:16.
4. Jesus did not try to use his prayer as a means of overturning God’s will or changing God’s mind about the task at hand, rather, this time of prayer was used to submit His will to the will of the Father, and receive the required strength of the Father to do what the Father wills. Matthew 26:39.
It is important for the believer to know, that God never intended for prayer to be used as a tool or weapon against Him. It was never meant to be means of getting God to approve our will, plans and pursuits.
5. Jesus expected His disciples, and by extension the believer today, to pray, in spite of the satiations that may surround us, our even our emotional state or feelings. In verse 37 of Matthew 26, we are told, that the disciples were sorrowful and very heavy. Luke 22:45 tells us that the did not pray because they were sorrowful. In spite of how they felt, Jesus still instructed and expected them to pray nonetheless.
However, Jesus’s example showed that, in spite of we may feel, we must pray, for he exceeding sorrowful, even unto death, yet He prayed.