Eva Hermann spent two years in a Nazi prison camp.[1] While there she learned prayer from a young cell mate. One of the practices that transformed her experience was praying Scripture. She wrote, “During many a walk in the courtyard I have permitted myself to be carried along by such a stream, by repeating again and again the words of a Psalm: for example Psalm No. 90, ‘O God, Thou art our refuge and our strength.’” She confessed that she met God in that prison camp in a way she had never met him anywhere else. Praying Scripture transformed her experience.
Today is the second of three days during which we are exploring the practice of praying Scripture as a means to increased intimacy with God. Our relationship to God is one of three core areas which Jesus identifies in the Sermon on the Mount as central to life. Praying Scripture can help us experience God in a way few other things can.
Praying Scripture roots us in prayers that have fed and blessed God’s people for centuries. Adele Calhoun writes, “Alongside the popularity of conversational prayer, with its up-to-the-minute spontaneity, stands the desire to be rooted in something ancient that has survived the centuries.”[2] Praying Scripture roots us in ancient words which have served God’s people for centuries.
Yesterday we prayed a Psalm. There are, however, many additional prayers to pray from Scripture. Today we survey words from Jesus which are useful for prayer. For example, we can pray through the actual prayers Jesus prayed. We can pray through a teaching from Jesus like the Sermon on the Mount. Finally, we can pray the iconic prayer given to us by Jesus known as the Lord’s Prayer.
Take ten minutes today to read over the three categories of Jesus-inspired prayer below. Choose one category. The pray through it.
Praying the Prayers of Jesus
Of the approximately thirty references in the Gospels to the prayer-life and prayer-words of Jesus, approximately nineteen of these are general in nature. They simply tell us that Jesus prayed. They do not describe in detail what Jesus prayed. Yet there are at least ten occasions on which the Gospel authors record the actual words Jesus spoke in prayer. Without a doubt these must be the most important prayers in Scripture. You can refresh your prayer life by praying one or more of these prayers each day:
1. 21 In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.” (Luke 10:21 ESV) (Matt. 11:25-26)
2. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” 43When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” (John 11:41-43 ESV).
3. 23And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. 27″Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. 28Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” 29The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” (John 12:23-29 ESV).
4. 1When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 4I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. 5And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. 6 “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. 8For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. 9I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. 10All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. 11And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. 12While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 14I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 16They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. 20“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. 24Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” (John 17:1-26 ESV).
5. 36 Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” 37And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” 39And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” 40And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour? 41 Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 42Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” 43And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. 44So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again. 45Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 46Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.” (Matt. 26:36-46 ESV) (Luke 22:39-46; Mk. 14:32-42)
6. 32 Two others, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him. 33And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. 34And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Lk. 23:32-34 ESV).
7. 33And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. 34And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” 35And some of the bystanders hearing it said, “Behold, he is calling Elijah.” 36And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.” 37And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. (Mk. 15:33-37 ESV) (Matt. 27:45-50)
8. 28After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said ( to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” 29A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. (Jn. 19:28-29 ESV).
9. 44 It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, 45while the sun’s light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. 46Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last. (Lk. 23:44-46 ESV).
10. 30When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. (Jn. 19:30 ESV).
Praying the Sermon on the Mount
The Sermon on the Mount contains some of the most powerful and challenging teaching ever to come from the lips of Jesus. It is the ultimate picture of what life could look like if God’s kingdom came on earth as in heaven. Below, I’ve taken the major thoughts of the Sermon on the Mount and turned them into prayers. One way to refresh your prayer life is to pray part or all of these prayers each day:
Enable me to show favor to the poor in spirit who have no one but you in their corner, the mournful so weary of the wrong in the world, the meek and the missing out, and those who are hungering and thirsting for the world to be made right.
Empower me to show mercy, to practice a faith that is not merely external and superficial, to pursue your peace for all people, and to be willing to pay the price to do what’s right by others and by you.
Energize me that I might do the good deeds that act as salt and light.
In my relationship with others make me the one who does not harbor anger but seeks reconciliation, pays any price to think and act without lust, does not divorce but is faithful, does not deceive but lets my ‘yes’ mean ‘yes,’ and does not respond to evil with violence but with love.
In my relationship with you assist me that I might give to the poor, pray, and fast for your sake and not mine; and that I might pray for your kingdom to come instead of for my will to be done.
In my relationship with money help me to not be miserly and serve Money but to be generous and serve you; help me not worry but trust in your caring provision and kingdom purpose.
May I pursue the strengthening of my own weaknesses rather than pointing out the weaknesses of others.
May I trust in a God who knows how to give good gifts.
May I do to others what I would have them do to me.
Let my path not be the crowded one but the little-traveled one.
Let me not listen to others because of the fruit on their resumes but because of the fruit in their character.
Let me not aspire to the claim of sensational spirituality but to the claim of simple obedience.
Transform me so that I do not merely listen to these words but do live them out.
Praying the Lord’s Prayer
The Lord’s Prayer is the supreme example from Jesus regarding what and how to pray. New life can pour into our prayers as we pray this prayer daily or at least weekly:
“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.”
(Matt. 6:9-13 ESV)
[1] John Ortberg, The Me I Want to Be (Zondervan, 2010), 111.
[2] Adele Calhoun, Spiritual Disciplines Handbook (IVP, 2005), 240.
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