What Jesus Prayed For

“WHAT JESUS PRAYED FOR”

By: Dr. Dennis Deese - www.dennisdeese.com

JOHN 17:6-26

"The more I practice this discipline, the more assured I become that the time spent praying for the congregation is one of the most important activities of the day." Norman Pavey

Five reasons we don’t pray, according to Richard Halverson:

1) Unbelief.

a) We don’t think it really works.

b) It’s just something you have to endure in church.

2) Indifference.

a) We don’t pray until a problem is huge.

3) Priorities.

a) Other things are more important to us.

4) It is hard work.

5) We are focused on this world.

a) We limit our goals to what we expect here and now.

b) The things of God do not mean much to us.

Causes of unanswered prayer: 1) not praying, 2) unconfessed sin, 3) broken relationships, 4) selfishness, 5) uncaring attitude, 6) inadequate faith. "No answers" by Bill Hybels. Campus Life, Sept 1989. P40

Mark 1:35 And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.

Mark 6:46 And when he had sent them away, he departed into a mountain to pray.

Luke 5:16 And he withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed.

Luke 6:12 And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.

Luke 9:18 And it came to pass, as he was alone praying, his disciples were with him: and he asked them, saying, Whom say the people that I am?

Luke 22:41 And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed,

Luke 3:21 Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened,

John 11:41 Then they took away the stone [from the place] where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up [his] eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me.

I believe the limited revelation of the content of Jesus prayer - that is, the content of His prayer limited, for the most part, to this passage, rather than it being recorded each time He prayed, - is to help us to understand that the most important factor of prayer is the building and forming of our relationship with God.

Too many people pray like little boys who knock at doors, then run away - War Cry

Prayer is not so much the means whereby God’s will is bent to man’s desires, as it is that man’s will is bent to God’s desires. The real end of prayer is not so much to get this or that single desire granted, as to put human life into full and joyful conformity with the will of God. Charles Brent (1862?1929)

It was your Lord who put an end to long-windedness, so that you would not pray as if you wanted to teach God by your many words. Piety, not verbosity, is in order when you pray, since He knows your needs. Now someone perhaps will say: ‘But if He knows our needs, why should we sate our requests even in a few words? Why should we pray at all? Since He knows, let Him give what He deems necessary for us.’ Even so, He wants you to pray so that He may confer His gifts on one who really desires them and will not regard them lightly. - Augustine

When thou prayest, rather let thy heart be without words, than thy words without heart. - Martin Luther

Keep praying, but be thankful that God’s answers are wiser than your prayers! - William Culbertson

I would rather teach one man to pray than ten men to preach. (Charles Spurgeon)

If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet distance makes no difference. He is praying for me. (Robert Murray McCheyne)

The prayer power has never been tried to its full capacity. If we want to see mighty wonders of divine power and grace wrought in the place of weakness, failure and disappointment, let us answer God’s standing challenge (Jeremiah 33:3) , ‘Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not! (J. Hudson Taylor)

Let’s look at the content of Jesus’ prayer. He prayed for our:

1. SEPARATION 17:6, 14, 16 “thou gavest me out of the world”

Romans 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

2 Corinthians 6:17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean [thing]; and I will receive you,