One of the things I admire most about Jesus is His prayer
life. His prayer in the Garden
of Gethsemane has long
been a comfort to me.
"Abba, Father, all things are
possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you
will" (Mark 14:36).
How do you pray when what you’re facing seems too hard to
bear? When a terrible trial overburdens you? When you’re facing heartache or
disappointment? When the night is so dark you think morning will never come?
Christ felt all these things when He knelt in the
Garden, His closest friends asleep and His immediate future unimaginably
sorrowful. How He prayed shows us how we should pray.
- Pray like a little child, coming to his father. “Abba, Father.” Abba is a little child’s word for his daddy. All of us in Christ can come to the Father this way (cf. Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6).
- Pray in faith. “All things are possible for you.” Jesus knew, and so should we, that nothing can stand in the way of our Father’s limitless power (cf. Mt. 19:26).
- Pray with boldness. “Remove this cup from me.” We’re invited to come to the throne of grace with confidence (Hebrews 4:16), to ask boldly for what we want. (God is too wise and too good to say “yes” to everything we ask. He said no to His own Son.)
- Pray in
submission. “Yet not what I will, but what you will.” ...we do not stop after bringing God our request. Instead...we balance our aspirations and our desires with submission to God's assignment. We leave the outcome to God. (Robert Bugh, When the Bottom Drops Out, p. 41. Thanks to my friend Bob, for recommending this
book.)
No wonder Jesus’ disciples said, “Lord, teach us to pray.”
