Becoming like Jesus means doing things the way Jesus did them. It also means praying the way that Jesus prayed.
There are a thousand different ways to pray.
• You can pray in the car,
• in the shower,
• while you exercise,
• while you wait in line.
You can pray a hundred little one-sentence prayers all throughout your day, or you can pray for a few focused minutes at night in your bed, right before you go to sleep.
You can pray with your hands folded and your eyes closed. You can pray with your head up, eyes open.
You can pray out loud or silently.
You can pray with people or pray alone!
Prayer is a miraculous gift, through which, we can talk to the Almighty God of the universe about anything, anytime, anywhere, with anyone! And He gives us permission to pray in all of these ways.
But He also invites us pray focused prayers, alone, just with Him, with no distractions.
We don’t know exactly what Jesus prayed for in Mark 1, where it says, “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where He prayed.” We don’t have the transcript of His prayers. But we do have the results of His time spent in prayer that early morning:
“Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where He prayed. Simon and his companions went to look for Him, and when they found Him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for You!”
Jesus is a local celebrity. He owns this town. He would never have pay for another meal, never have to work another day in His life. They’d probably give Him the nicest house in town if He just continued teaching in the synagogue and driving out demons and healing all their sicknesses.
But Jesus goes to into a time of focused prayer, early in the morning with God. And He comes away from that prayer time with this answer:
Verse 38: Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. For that is why I have come.”
We don’t know the words Jesus prayed to the Father that morning, but we do know the results of those prayers:
• God reminded Jesus of His identity.
• And God reminded Jesus of His purpose.
To become like Jesus, we’ve got to pray like Jesus prayed. And I think, the Biblical evidence, from numerous passages that describe Jesus’ prayer life, I think Jesus often sought focused time with the Father, in order to ask God to remind Him who He was, and what He it is that He was supposed to be doing.
Do you know that the truest things about you are the things that God says about you?
You are beloved. You are chosen.
Your freedom and your eternal wholeness have been bought with a price – in fact, the very highest possible price! – the life of God’s own Son.
And what would we pay only the highest price for? Something that has the utmost value – something of great worth.
And so God says, with both His words and His actions, that He thinks of you as having the utmost value. You are of great worth to the One who made you.
The One who thought you up – you know you were God’s idea, right? He conceived of you in His own mind long before your parents conceived you into the world.
The Bible says that God personally knit you together in your mother’s womb with His own hands. You are of great value – you have great worth! And you, to God, were worth paying the very highest price to buy your freedom and your eternal salvation.
The truest things about you are the things that God says about you, and sometimes, like Jesus, we need to set aside special time to go to the Father, and to be reminded by Him what God thinks of us.
“Father, what do You think of me? What do You see in me? Who do You say that I am?” And then to wait, in that quiet place of private prayer, and to let Father God bestow upon you and confirm for you your God-given identity as His beloved child, rescued and redeemed by the willing sacrifice of Jesus on your behalf.
To become more like Jesus, let us pray more like Jesus prayed.
