Ed Jones
“After Jesus said this, He looked toward heaven and prayed …” (John 17:1).
We had just heard a stirring, passionate speech about all the evils that had befallen American society since prayer was banned from our schools. At the end of that morning’s Christian men’s breakfast, men from different churches huddled in small, informal groups talking about how we need to bring prayer back to our schools. Everyone was still smarting from the ruling and expressed strong feelings that we need to fight back. I was curious. So, I floated a question: “How many of us in this group pray for and with our families every day?” The silence was a clear answer.
I thought about what Daniel did when he learned about the law that he could be put to death if he prayed to anyone except King Darius. “Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before” (Daniel 6:10). It was not about Daniel’s courage and faithfulness. It was about Daniel’s understanding he could not function nor live apart from His God.
Jesus tells the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector: “The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get'” (Luke 18:11-12). God railed against Christless religion: “These people come near to Me with their mouth and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me” (Isaiah 29:13).
Which brings us to Jesus praying. The perfect Man. He was not practicing the “Seven Irrefutable Laws of Effective Prayer,” or whatever new formula we have come up with to twist the arms of God. He was simply communing with His Father. “Therefore, Jesus answered and was saying to them ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.’” (John 5:19, NASB95).
Prayer was so integral to everything Jesus was and did. Prayer should be so integral to everything we are and do. Prayer is recognition that everything that we are and everything that we need is totally dependent on God’s grace. So, we pray. Just as a man who is suffocating needs air, so do we as believers living in this fallen world need to pray. “Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart,” (Luke 18:1 NASB95).
Ed Jones pastors Fellowship At The Ranch Church at Robson Ranch. This nondenominational church meets at the Robson clubhouse on Sunday mornings at 10:30 a.m. For information, visit Fellowship’s website www.fellowshipattheranchchurch.com.