What is the biblical foundation for prayer? Is prayer limited for emergencies and crisis?
1. Early in the morning, Jesus went by himself to pray. (Mark 1:35)
- Jesus began His day with prayer
2. Jesus prayed before Baptism. (Luke 3:21)
- God’s power released on bended knees. This is God’s way of empowering.
- The Church needs His power to be His witness
3. Jesus often withdrew by Himself to pray. (Luke 5:16)
- Prayer was a habit with Jesus.
- Not occasional prayer but frequent.
4. Jesus spent all night in prayer (Luke 6:12)
- All night prayer was practiced by Jesus.
5. Jesus prayed privately (Luke 9:18)
- Jesus spent alone time in prayer
6. Jesus dismissed the crowd and went to pray (Matt 14:23)
- Jesus applied discipline in His prayer life. He knew when to dismiss the crowd
- We may need to shut off the TV and other distractions to pray.
7. Jesus prayed with His disciples (Luke 9: 28)
- He demonstrated and shared the importance of prayer to His disciples.
8. After Jesus finished praying ..(Luke 11:1)
- The disciples wanted to know how to pray,
- The prayer life of Jesus motivated His disciples to pray.
9. Always watch and Pray (Luke 21:37)
- End time days are near. Prayer is the need of the hour.
- Our busy lives are no excuse not to pray.
10. In the last days of Jesus’ life on earth… He prayed. (Heb 5:7)
- This is the auto-biography of Jesus.
- He did many miracles but prayer was the most important aspect of His life
- We may do great things in the name of Jesus, but are we people of prayer?
Prayer was not a part of Jesus’ life, but prayer was His life!
– Thomas Samuel (from his book ‘Dynamics of Intercessory Prayer’)