Jesus prayed, and if he depended on prayer, don’t you think we should, too?

I mean, we know the difference that prayer makes. But let me ask you this: How’s your prayer life? I think if we’re honest, all of us would admit it could use some improvement. Even if you’re a master of prayer, you would still say “I need to improve, because Jesus prayed perfect prayers, and my prayers are not perfect.” We can all grow; we can all improve.

And here’s the good news: When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, He gave them the Lord’s Prayer. And then, the disciples were there, too, for  Jesus longest-recorded prayer in John 17.

Both instances teach us how we can be better at prayer.

Make it a habit

Jesus prayed all the time. He had prayer habits. He got up early while it was still dark. He prayed regularly.

You can make prayer a habit by praying before a major decision. You can make it a habit by booking some extra time to spend in prayer. You can make an appointment for daily prayer.

We have to make prayer a habit.

Talk to your Father

Jesus always addresses his prayer to the Father. We see that in the Lord’s Prayer: “Our Father…” And in John 17, he does the same. Later, at the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prays to “Abba,” which means Father.

Praying to God as Father will make us at once more reverent and more bold in our prayers. Right before Jesus teaches the disciples the Lord’s Prayer, He tells this little story about a man who has guests arrive late at night, and he doesn’t have any food to give them. So he goes to his neighbor, his friend, and he starts pounding on the door at midnight, saying, “Give me some bread.”

The friend says no initially, but eventually because of his neighbor’s “shameless audacity,” he gives him the bread.

I just love that phrase, “shameless audacity.” That’s how we can pray. We can be shamelessly audacious in our prayers to God. We’re called to ask big, bold prayers.

I think part of the reason we’re encouraged to pray bold prayers is because boldness is related to the most common command in scripture: “Do not fear.” The opposite of fear is boldness, or “shameless audacity.” We have faith that God can and wants to do exceedingly, abundantly more than all we can ask or even imagine.

Pray with expectation

In the same chapter where Jesus teaches the disciples to pray, He says, “if you ask, it will be given to you; if you seek, you will find; if you knock, the door will be opened unto you.”

God is a good Father, and He is going to answer our prayers perfectly. Jesus says that even we imperfect dads will give our kids good gifts, so how much more will our perfect Father give us what we need?

Sometimes we can expect him to answer “no” and sometimes we can expect him to answer “wait,” because that’s what’s best. And your heavenly Father knows what’s best.

Pray for God’s glory

Jesus consistently prays for God’s glory. Notice the first petition of the Lord’s Prayer: “hallowed be your name,” or “make your name holy, make your name great, make it set apart.” And in John 17, He prays again for God’s glory.

I have to be honest: I don’t often pray for God’s glory, but maybe I should, and maybe you should, because I think if we did start to pray about God being glorified, then maybe we would start to live, in the words of the Reformation, “soli Deo gloria,” or to the glory of God alone.

If I’m praying about God’s glory, then I’m going to live and work toward God’s glory.

Pray for spiritual protection

In the Lord’s Prayer, we say, “lead us not to temptation, but deliver us from evil.” It could be translated “deliver us from the evil one.” In John 17, too, Jesus prays that we might be protected from the evil one.

There’s actually a lot of prayers for protection throughout all of John 17: protections from the world, protection from the evil one, protection from ourselves.

I think a lot of us will pray for our physical protection and for the physical protection of our loved ones, but are we praying for spiritual protection? We should, because we’re fighting a battle, one that is not against flesh and blood, but against the powers and principalities of the age, the spiritual forces of evil.

Pray for unity

Part of how we pray for protection is by praying for unity among other Jesus-followers.

One of the devil’s strategies is to divide and conquer. If you ever watch predators attack a herd, what do they do? They separate the the weak animal away from the rest of the herd to divide it.

This is why Jesus teaches us in the Lord’s Prayer to pray for forgiveness as we forgive others. Forgiveness is the key to unity.

We’ve given up on unity in some ways. We think divisions are inevitable. That’s not what Jesus is saying, though. And He’s saying that as we are united, the Gospel is spread because of our love for one another.

Pray for others

In John 17, Jesus prays not just for his disciples who are right there with Him, and even though he knows he’s about to go to the cross, He doesn’t pray just for himself.

He prays for those who would believe because of their message. He prays for us. Don’t miss that Jesus prays for you. Jesus could have spent time praying for himself. He didn’t. He could have spent time praying just for his immediate circle. He didn’t. He prayed for all those those who would believe.

I’m sure you pray for others, but how are your proportions? Pray beyond your immediate circle. Pray for those who would believe because of your witness to Jesus.

In the Lord’s Prayer and in John 17, Jesus’ prayer before he died, Jesus showed us the priority of prayer.

Jesus prayed. That should really motivate us, and it gives us a roadmap. So, now let’s get at it.

Let’s pray!