Philip Yancey is an award winning Christian author. In a recent book he reflects on his own struggles with prayer: When I hear of people who spend an hour a day meditating, I wonder how they do it. I strain to spend fifteen minutes, and anything longer tends to degenerate into distraction and lapses of concentration…After reading scores of books and interviewing scores of people about prayer, I would expect a more noticeable improvement in my own prayer life. If I invested the same energy in, say, golf or learning a foreign language, I would likely see results. Still I find that prayer involves an effort of will. Sometimes it proves rewarding, sometimes not, at least not in ways I can detect at the time.[1]
This best-selling author who researched prayer for months says he still struggles with prayer. Do you connect with that confession? For many of us our desire for prayer is far greater than our practice of prayer. We know we should pray. We want to pray. We admire those who do pray. But when it comes to our practice, we don’t pray, at least not in the fashion we’d like.
For some of us this gap between our desire and our practice is rooted in doubts about prayer. After all, did you ever pray for God to do something and he didn’t do it? Some of us don’t practice prayer as much as we’d like because we aren’t sure it works.
Others of us don’t practice prayer as passionately as we might because we don’t know how. We pull out the prayer list of family members and school or work issues, pray through it in about five minutes, and then don’t know what else to do. We’d like prayer to go beyond a shopping list of requests, but we aren’t sure how to get there.
Thankfully, we’ve been given something to help close this gap between our prayer-desire and our prayer-practice. We’ve been given the prayers of Jesus. These prayers open up new vistas of prayer. And they move us more toward the kind of praying people we want to be.
If we do not include the Lord’s Prayer in Matt. 6 which Jesus taught but did not actually pray in that text, there are only 8 recorded prayers of Jesus. Of the 8, 3 come from the cross. Here are the 8 prayers of Jesus:
1. My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will. (Matt. 26:36-42; Mk. 14:35-36; Lk. 22:41-42)
2. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Matt. 27:46; Mk. 15:34)
3. Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. (Lk. 23:46)
4. Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. (Lk. 23:34)
5. I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children… (Matt. 11:25-26; Lk. 10:1)
6. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name…(Jn. 17:1-26)
7. Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me… (Jn. 11:41-42)
8. Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour?… (Jn. 12:27-28).
We know Jesus prayed a great deal. We are told he would often withdraw to lonely places and pray. We are told that at times he spent entire nights in prayer. But of all those times of prayer, the Gospel writers recorded only these 8 prayers. If we want to learn anything about prayer, we should start here. These 8 prayers are some of the most precious things Jesus has given.
The book A Thousand Splendid Suns is historical fiction about two women-Laila and Mariam-who lived in Kabul, Afghanistan in the late twentieth/early twenty-first centuries. During the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, women enjoyed new freedoms such as attending school and working. But after the overthrow of the Soviets, conditions in the country and in Kabul became unbearable. Warlords of local tribes fought for power. Kabul and its residents suffered daily bombs and sniper fire. Then, when the Taliban took control, the violence lessened but the conditions worsened. Women could not work, could not be educated, could not be on the street without a male relative, and could not laugh in public. Most hospitals were closed to women and the one that remained open to women had few doctors and fewer supplies. On top of it all Laila and Mariam had been forced to marry a cruel man named Rasheed who beat them and abused them. Laila gave birth to a little girl, Aziza. Rasheed, who wanted a boy, despised Aziza. But Laila and Mariam loved her. As Aziza grew, Mariam began to teach her prayers. They were prayers from her childhood; prayers taught to her by the only kind man in her life, a Muslim holy man. Mariam taught Aziza these prayers. And she said, “These are all I have. They are my only true possession.” These prayers carried Mariam through the time her mother died and the time her father sent her to Rasheed. These prayers comforted her through seven miscarriages. These prayers strengthened her when Kabul was riddled with violence. They were her only possession. And she knew they would be all Aziza would need as she grew.
The same is true when it comes to the prayers of Jesus. These are the only prayers we know of that sustained Jesus in the most difficult times of life. These are the only prayers we know of that strengthened him and encouraged him. They are our prize possession. They are the path toward stronger praying.
This is especially true when it comes to the prayer in Lk. 23: 44 It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, 45 for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. 46 Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last. 47 The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, “Surely this was a righteous man.” 48 When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away. 49 But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things. (Lk. 23:44-49 TNIV).
Because this is such a brief prayer, I want to reflect of some of its individual words. First, let’s reflect on Jesus’ words “I” and “my”: Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. In this prayer Jesus doesn’t pray for other people. He prays for himself. This is not intercession for others. This is petition for self. There will come a time for intercession. The last prayer on the cross is one of intercession. The longest prayer of Jesus, Jn. 17, is intercession. But here we have petition. Here, Jesus prays for his needs.
Perhaps most fundamentally, this prayer teaches us that prayer for self is just as appropriate as prayer for others. There is nothing selfish in praying for self. Prayer should move to intercession. But Jesus models a prayer that focuses on self as well. The two previous prayers we’ve explored demonstrate this: My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will. (Matt. 26:36-42; Mk. 14:35-36; Lk. 22:41-42). It is a prayer focused on what Jesus wants. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Matt. 27:46; Mk. 15:34). It is a prayer focused on Jesus’ needs. Let’s be very clear about this: for those of us who rarely pray for our own needs and our own wishes because we feel it is selfish, Jesus models a prayer life that demonstrates the appropriateness of praying for self.
Let’s reflect on the words “your hands”: Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. In the Bible the hand is what allows humans to be doers, that is, took-makers and tool-users. The hand is what allows humans to use their full strength and might. Thus “hands” in the Bible come to be associated with power and control. The hand of God refers to his power and his control. When people are delivered or protected in the Bible, is it by the hand of God. God brought the Israelites out of Egypt with a “mighty hand” (Ex. 32:11). The personal need which Jesus brings to God in prayer here is placed and left in the hands of God; hands that are mighty; hands that are in control. For Jesus, prayer is taking to God matters of deep personal interest and leaving them in God’s hands.
Even more, he places it in the hands of “Father.” Just as the prayer was last week, this prayer is also a quote from a Psalm. Jesus uses words from Ps. 31 here. But he adds one word. He adds “Father.” David, the author of Ps. 31 prayed to the LORD. But Jesus changes the prayer. He prays not to the LORD. He prays to “Father”: Father into your hands I commit my spirit. These are the strong hands not just of mighty God. These are the strong hands of loving “Father.” These are the hands of the Father Jesus has been in sweet relationship with for all eternity. Hands that have held, hugged, and clapped for this Son. In prayer, Jesus takes this deep personal matter and leaves it in the hands of his Father.
Contemporary Christian musician Susan Ashton sings of these hands in her song “In My Father’s Hands”:
Sometimes I get lost, sometimes I get oh so scared When these wires get crossed, somehow I end up nowhere But there is where I turn from what I sought to gain And there is where I learn that I’ve only to call upon His name. It’s in my Father’s hands and I have no fear There’s no point making plans when His hands can steer Why should I so small and frail, carry life’s demands When He can see where I might fail and where I might stand It’s in my Father’s hands. (Susan Ashton “In My Father’s Hands”)
We are small and frail. There is no reason for us to carry life’s demands. Like Jesus, in prayer, we should place them in the Father’s hands. Too often we don’t bring the most demanding things about our life to those hands. Or worse, we place these things in our Father’s hands. But then, when our prayer is over, we take them back and carry them with us once again. Prayer is how Jesus brought to God matters of life and death-and left them in God’s hands.
Consider one last word in this prayer, the word “spirit”: “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” This may be one of the most profound words in this prayer. This is much more than Jesus leaving some matter in God’s hands. This is Jesus leaving himself in God’s hands. The word “spirit” refers to the innermost part of Jesus. This is his core. This is the deepest part of him. This is his most vulnerable piece of himself. This is his true self. And in prayer Jesus does not simply leave a matter in God’s hands. He leaves himself in God’s hands. Jesus teaches us that prayer is how we leave ourselves in God’s hands.
In my own experience I easily bring to God in prayer those things that are on the surface of my mind and heart. I can quickly bring to God my child who is sick, a meeting I am worried about, or a task I need help with. But I am not as quick to bring to God my spirit-the deepest part of who I am. Jesus’ models an approach to prayer in which we bring to God not just the superficial “me” I present to the people around me, but the real me, the me with no masks, the vulnerable me, the me I don’t want others to see. Jesus encourages us to bring to God our spirit.
How often do you pray about matters of the spirit? This is one thing that struck me as I did background work for this series. I spent time studying the words Paul prays at the beginning or end of his letters. The remarkable thing about Paul’s prayers is how they quickly bypass superficial matters and go directly to matters of the spirit. For example, Paul prays, I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. (Eph. 1:17 TNIV). He prays, And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ. (Phil. 1:9-10 TNIV). These are matters of the spirit-matters that deal with the deepest part of who we are and what we need. How often do we pray about matters of the spirit? Not just a sick aunt, a wayward child, a task at work, or a meal? How often do you bring to God the needs of your spirit-your need to really know God, to really love God, to truly be a holy person? For Jesus, prayer is how we bring these matters and leave them in God’s hands.
Imagine the things we lift up to God in prayer as baggage. Some are small pieces of baggage. Some are large pieces of baggage. We often bring this baggage to God in prayer. We place it in his hands. We ask him to do the right thing with it. But too many times, we end that prayer by grabbing those handles and taking the luggage back with us. We don’t leave it in God’s hands. What is something significant in your life right now that you need to place and leave in God’s hands?
[1] Philip Yancey Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference? (Zondervan, 2006), 158-160. [2] Khaled Hosseini A Thousand Splendid Suns (Riverhead, 2007). [3] P. L. Garber “Hand,” International Standard Bible Encyclopedia Fully Revised, E-J (Eerdmans, 1982), 610. [4] David Neff “‘Father, Into Your Hands I Commit My Spirit’: Jesus’ important addition to David’s cry”, http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/marchweb-only/112-43.0.html
