Before He Was Crucified

We're about a week away from Resurrection Sunday. Christ knew what would take place; He told His disciples to be ready, "saying, the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be slain, and be raised the third day" (Lk. 9:22/Mark 8:31)

Jesus taught His disciples how to pray one more than one occasion. (Matt 6:6,Luke 8:9-14, Matt 6:9-13, etc.)

Jesus took time to pray all throughout His ministry. Right before Jesus did His sermon on the mount in Luke (6:12), it says "Now it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God". He prayed all night long!

I believe a Christian is only as strong as his/her prayer life. Prayer is vital yet we all so often make it secondary. Praying should never just be incidental.

R. F. Horton said, “Therefore, whether the desire for prayer is on you or not, get to your closet at the set time; shut yourself in with God; wait upon Him; seek His face; realize Him; pray.”

Jesus told His disciples "Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time is." (Mark 13:33)

"Oh brother, pray; in spite of satan, pray; spend hours in prayer; rather neglect friends than not pray; rather fast, and lose breakfast, dinner, tea, and supper - and sleep too - than not pray. And we must not talk about prayer, we must pray in right earnest. The Lord is near. He comes softly while the virgins slumber." ~Andrew A. Bonar

We have been given such a great gift, the power of prayer! When we pray in Christ's name we have done, I believe, the greatest thing we can do. To continue in prayer, to pray without ceasing, is to grow closer to God, it is gaining power to do all things through Christ.

The apostles did great miracles but it started with prayer: Acts 6:4 says, "But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word." One of my favorite quotes on prayer is by Martin Luther. He said, "If I fail to spend two hours in prayer each morning, the devil gets the victory through the day. I have so much business I cannot get on without spending three hours daily in prayer."

Two or three hours just for the morning! What a great change we would see if more Christians fought daily on their knees!

“Depend upon it, if you are bent on prayer, the devil will not leave you alone. He will molest you, tantalize you, block you, and will surely find some hindrances, big or little or both. And we sometimes fail because we are ignorant of his devices…I do not think he minds our praying about things if we leave it at that. What he minds, and opposes steadily, is the prayer that prays on until it is prayed through, assured of the answer.” Mary Warburton Booth

"Since the days of Pentecost, has the whole church ever put aside every other work and waited upon Him for ten days, that the Spirit’s power might be manifested? We give too much attention to method and machinery and resources, and too little to the source of power." Hudson Taylor

Before Christ was crucified He spent the night in prayer. But what did He pray for? He told Peter that if He had prayed for it, God would have provided Him with more than twelve legions of angels. But he instead prayed, "not as I will, but as You will". Jesus gave the perfect example of prayer when He said, "Your will be done."

So often I have felt that I was praying for God's will, when in actuality, I was praying for what I thought was best.

I found quite a few great quotes here. I hope you go check them out.
"Satan does not care how many people read about prayer if only he can keep them from praying." ~Paul E. Billheimer

"What is the conclusion then? I will pray" (1 Corinthians 14:15a)

God Bless,