Do you have good habits?

first week:

Main point: prayer brings strength

1: His Baptism

Prayer Brings power

2: After healing the sick all day he woke up early to pray

Prayer brings vision

3: After healing the Leper caused a ruckus

he frequently would slip away to the wilderness and pray

the tighter the tension, the more time there must be for unhurried prayer

4: prayer all night before choosing the 12 and the sermon on the mount

power flows out of us when we spend time in prayer

week 2

main point: Like hygiene, Prayer should be a private habit that isn’t a secret

5. all night after feeding the 5k (johns death) followed by walking on water

6. demonstrating prayer (who do you say that I am?)

7. transfiguration

8. exclamatory prayer after sending the 70

9. lord’s prayer (demonstrating prayer again)

Week 3

Main Point: Prayer-Power is the greatest power entrusted to mankind

10: lazarus (builds faith)

11: god responds from heaven (allows us to hear god’s voice)

12: last supper, prayer for peter (humbly prays for others)

Week 4

Main Point: God is Attracted to weakness

He can’t resist those who humbly and honestly admit how desparately they need him

Our weakness, in fact, makes room for his power

13: Intercessory/high priestly prayer (Jesus prays for those left behind after his death) John 17

14: Garden of Gethsemane (we can overcome crisis by prayer)

15: On the cross (our prayers should speak of forgiveness, praise, and contentment)

A Composite Picture.

It may be helpful to make the following summary of these allusions.

1. His times of prayer:

His regular habit seems plainly to have been to devote the early morning hour to communion with His Father,

and to depend upon that for constant guidance and instruction.

Mark 1:35 NASB95

In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there.

In addition to this regular appointment, He sought other opportunities for secret prayer as special need arose;

late at night after others had retired;

three times He remained in prayer all the night;

and at irregular intervals between times.

Note that it was usually a quiet time when the noises of earth were hushed.

He spent special time in prayer before important events and also afterwards.

2. His places of prayer:

He who said,

Matthew 6:6 NASB95

“But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

Himself had no fixed inner chamber,

during His public career, to make easier the habitual retirement for prayer.

Homeless for the three and a half years of ceaseless travelling,

His place of prayer was a desert place,

"the deserts,"

"the mountains,"

"a solitary place."

He loved nature.

The hilltop back of Nazareth village,

the slopes of Olivet,

the hillsides overlooking the Galilean lake,

were His favourite places.

Note that it was always a quiet place,

shut away from the discordant sounds of earth.

3. His constant spirit of prayer:

He was never out of the spirit of prayer.

He could be alone with God in a dense crowd.

1 Thessalonians 5:16–18 NASB95

Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

-Exclamatory prayer after sending the 70

-Prayer made before calling Lazarus

-Prayer in the crowd in Jerusalem where God responds from heaven

-On the Cross

4. He prayed in the great crises of His life:

Five such are mentioned:

Before the awful battle royal with Satan in the wilderness

before choosing the twelve leaders of the new movement;

at the time of the Galilean uprising; (after John’s death, after feeding 5k, before walking on water)

before the final departure from Galilee for Judea and Jerusalem; (transfiguration)

and in Gethsemane, the greatest crisis of all. (See mentions 1, 4, 5, 7 and 14.)

5. He prayed for others by name, and still does. (See mention 13.)

Luke 22:31–32 NASB95

“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”

6. He prayed with others:

A habit that might well be more widely copied.

A few minutes spent in quiet prayer

with friends or fellow-workers before parting wonderfully sweetens the spirit,

and cements friendships,

and makes difficulties less difficult,

and hard problems easier of solution.

7. The greatest blessings of His life came during prayer:

Six incidents are noted:

while praying, the Holy Spirit came upon Him;

He was transfigured;

three times a heavenly voice of approval came;

and in His hour of sorest distress in the garden a heavenly messenger came to strengthen Him.

(See mentions 1, 7, 11 and 14.)

Conclusion

How much prayer meant to Jesus!

It was not only His regular habit,

but His resort in every emergency, however slight or serious.

When perplexed He prayed.

When hard pressed by work He prayed.

When hungry for fellowship He found it in prayer.

He chose His associates and received His messages upon His knees.

If tempted, He prayed.

If criticized, He prayed.

If fatigued in body or wearied in spirit,

He had recourse in His one unfailing habit of prayer.

Prayer brought Him unmeasured power at the beginning,

and kept the flow unbroken and undiminished.

There was no emergency,

no difficulty,

no necessity,

no temptation that would not yield to prayer,

as He practiced it.

SO should We,

who have been tracing these steps in His prayer life,

go back over them again and again until we breathe in His very spirit of prayer?

And shall we not, too, ask Him daily to teach us how to pray,

and then plan to get alone with Him regularly

that He may have opportunity to teach us,

and we the opportunity to practice His teaching?