How did you learn “how” to pray? Jewish children were taught to pray every night before they went to bed. Their mother or father taught them to use one of the Psalms, Psalm 31:5 “Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O LORD, faithful God.” Every night this was their prayer. Jesus would have been taught this prayer as a young child. This prayer reveals that your life is not in the hands of fate. Your life is in the hand of a faithful God. Jesus repeated this prayer on the cross, knowing his life was being poured out as an offering and sacrifice and that his Heavenly Father held him in his loving care even in the midst of his most difficult and devastating time.
Jesus was a person of prayer. He often took time to get away by himself to pray. Think about it. Jesus is the Son of God, the second person of the Holy Trinity. John tells us that the creation, itself, came into being through the Word and the Word is Jesus. He is fully divine and fully human. Yet, Jesus felt the need to step away from the busyness of ministry and everyday life to pray. He constantly placed his life in the hands of his Heavenly Father.
If prayer was important to Jesus, then it must be vital to our lives today. John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Revival in 18th century Britain wrote, “Prayer may be said to be the breath of our spiritual life. One who lives cannot possibly stop breathing.” Prayer is breath. Prayer is oxygen for a thriving spiritual life, a vital church, a Kingdom movement seeking to transform the world. Prayer changes us and then prayer channels the grace of God in and through us to a hurting world. We need prayer. The world needs our prayers. Our Heavenly Father is waiting for us to place our lives, our whole beings, into his loving hands.
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