“(Jesus) went away the second time and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done.” (Matthew 26:43)
“Then said Jesus, Father forgive them; for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34) “I pray not thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil one.”(John 17:15) The New Testament often tells us that “Jesus went apart to pray.” Whatever Jesus prayed about was of ultimate importance. He was God incarnate and knew all things, so whatever He prayed about had eternal significance. We can believe that in His infinite wisdom, Jesus was praying for us as well. There are three prayers of Jesus that were crucial to the reason why He came to earth in the first place. Let’s look at them and realize they are crucial to us. The prayer in Matthew 26:43 was prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. This was what I will call His prayer of surrender. From the time He left heaven until this crucial moment in the Garden, Jesus knew that He came to earth to ultimately drink the cup of separation and death. It should mean a lot to us that Jesus struggled with the decision, for this indentifies Him with us in our struggles. The bitter cup was not death, for Jesus did not fear death. In my opinion, the bitter cup was that on the cross, Jesus took the sins of the whole world upon Himself. In the process He had to cry out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?” Jesus took your sins and mine upon Himself on the cross. This prayer of surrender was crucial for our salvation, for without His crucifixion, we would be lost in sin forever. The prayer in Luke 23:34 was prayed from the cross. According to Luke, these were the first words that Jesus uttered from the cross. That is just like the Jesus that we have come to know through the gospel accounts, i.e., that He was thinking of those who were crucifying Him and all of the people who would be born afterward – this means you and me as well. A gospel song comes to mind when I read this: “When He was on the cross, I was on His mind.” We can take this prayer personally. Jesus prayed for our forgiveness from the cross before He died. My understanding of this prayer is that Jesus has already forgiven us for our sins, what we need to do is claim it. After we are converted we need to pray for forgiveness in order to claim the forgiveness that He gave us from the cross. This prayer was crucial, because without the forgiveness of Jesus, we would be hopelessly lost and unforgiven here and throughout eternity. Jesus’ forgiveness is available to all who are convicted by the Holy Spirit that they need it. The prayer in John 17:15 was part of Jesus’ prayer for Himself, his disciples and for all future believers. This was a prayer for His disciples, but it applies to us as well. The prayer was that His followers would be protected from the devil. Jesus did not pray for His followers to be taken from the world, because we are His witnesses here and now. He prayed that we would be protected from “the evil one” – the devil and his demons. That prayer was crucial for the devil is always busy trying to ruin our witness to the world. Again, I remind you that you can take these prayers personally. Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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