There is perhaps no greater example of Jesus in prayer than the lengthy, swirling “high-priestly prayer” recorded in John 17.

One of the striking things about this passage is that although Jesus is God in the flesh, he seems to rely heavily on prayer as a means of accomplishing God’s will. He doesn’t simply teach his disciples what the right way is or “fix” them in some “supernatural” way. He spends time praying to God the Father on their behalf, here in John 17 and many other places. The New Testament is also clear that the risen and ascended Jesus continues to pray for us (Rom 8:34; 1 John 2:1). Prayer is apparently still the way that God’s work gets done.

One example of this can be found in In Luke 22:31-32. Jesus foresees that Simon will be tested severely. Though Simon thinks he is ready to die with Jesus, he will find out that when it comes down to it, he will quickly, easily deny that he even knows Jesus. You would think Jesus would want to secure the future of the church by perhaps re-wiring Simon’s brain so that he responds differently, to somehow guarantee his eventual success. But he doesn’t. Instead, Jesus says, “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” One would imagine that Jesus desperately wants Simon to pass the test, but instead of trying to engineer the outcome, he simply prays for him. It speaks volumes about Jesus’ trust in God that he sees prayer as the best thing he can do for Simon in this very crucial, dangerous time.

Looking at Jesus in prayer teaches us that it really is a powerful tool for seeing God’s will done on earth as it is in heaven. Of course it always must be married to faith-filled action, but action without prayer is powerless to effect real transformation and belies a subtle form of unbelief where we think nothing of value can come from people simply praying. The life of Jesus and the Scriptures indicate otherwise: “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective” (James 5:16).

Prayer Exercise:
Set aside 20-30 minutes to think about the following questions:

• When you want to see transformation happen in those you love, is your first instinct to pray for them?
• Or do you first begin strategizing about how you could steer them toward change?
• Do you perhaps trust more in your own persuasive abilities than in God’s Spirit?
• How would you like your prayer life to change based on your answers to these questions?

Now read John 17 slowly, meditating on the fact that Jesus is praying for you right now.

Following from yesterday’s exercise of making time and space for the kind of prayer Jesus seemed to have engaged in often, today we continue to look at Jesus in prayer.

Read Luke 4:1-2:

“Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.”

Larry Bird was a freakishly good NBA basketball player who played mainly during the 1980s. Many people still refer to him as the “Basketball Jesus.” There was one stretch during the ’86 season when he was actually bored by how good he was, so he started using his left hand more, just for a challenge. During one game, he only took left-handed shots during the first half. He did this kind of thing often, experimenting with all the different ways he could beat a defender in the low post, seeing how many times he and Bill Walton could run the backdoor play in one game, etc. He intentionally weakened his game just to feel challenged and make it fun again.

It’s tempting (no pun intended) to see Jesus’ wilderness temptation in the same way. We oftentimes assume that the fasting depleted Jesus of spiritual power, so the devil could tempt him when he was at his “weakest,” like Superman trying to save the world with kryptonite in his pocket, or like Larry Bird only taking left-handed shots.

Indeed, fasting for forty days does make one hungry, but when you compare this passage to others that feature a fasting Jesus, an interesting picture starts to emerge. It seems that Jesus didn’t spend forty days in solitude and fasting in order to weaken himself, but to strengthen himself and prepare him for the severe testing ahead. Fasting and solitude seem to be more of a spiritual training regimen than a way to weaken oneself.

In John 4, when the disciples rejoin Jesus after his conversation with a woman at a well in Samaria, they urge him to eat something, and Jesus responds, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” He explains, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.” Fasting in an opportunity to feast more fully on the sustenance that comes directly from God in the kingdom. Like the Israelites in the desert fed by manna, the “bread of heaven,” fasting from normal food for awhile has a tendency to tune us in more fully to the “spiritual food” that God provides. Fasting turns into feasting on the presence of God. It’s not just something for monks and pastors, it’s for all of us who want to more fully experience the bread that God provides in the kingdom.

Exercise:
Most of us don’t think about fasting very much, and if we do it’s normally thought of as a strange, archaic custom like self-flagellation or sitting in mud or something. Take some time to simply write down on a page all your qualms, questions, and thoughts about fasting. Take these to God in prayer (during one of those 3 times per week you’ve carved out!). Listen to what God may say to you. Perhaps you’ll want to plan a day in the coming week to intentionally fast one meal and spend that time in prayer.

For further exploration, read and take notes on either Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline (the chapter on fasting) or Scot McKnight’s Fasting. Plan a time to experiment (safely) with fasting, perhaps one meal per week for several weeks.

At the very center of this middle piece of Jesus’ great Sermon we find the chief activity of the people of God: Prayer (v9-18). If the blessing and reward of the Kingdom is God Himself, then there can be no activity that can replace prayer as the chief duty and delight of Kingdom people, for prayer is where we join with God through a conversation of the heart.

The exercise today is to journal a prayer, using the Lord’s prayer as an outline. This is likely how Jesus intended his prayer to be used; as a guideline for our intimate conversations with God. All human concerns are found in this prayer:

• Praise for God’s eternal nature and perfect character,
• A plea for God’s will to come to the circumstances of the world,
• A petition for personal needs,
• A confession of sin and cry for mercy,
• A recognition that we need God’s protection in our lives from temptation and destruction.

Write out a prayer, almost like a diary entry, using these points as an outline. You’ll need at least 20-30 minutes to do this. You can type it out on your computer, use a handwritten journal, or turn it into a song. Whatever you do, make it personal and don’t forget to listen for God’s response being impressed upon your thoughts and feelings.

In The Cotton Patch Version, Clarence Jordan translates the Lord’s prayer like this:

Father of us, O Spiritual One
Your name be truly honored.
Your kingdom spread, your will prevail
Through earth, as through the heavens.
Sustaining bread grant us each day.
Forgive our debts as we forgive
The debts of all who cannot pay.
And from confusion keep us clear;
Deliver us from evil’s sway.

Jordan translates the Lord’s prayer as a poem because that is how it appears in the original Greek. As a poem, it took advantage of the ability to communicate deeper meaning through structure, rhythm, and rhyme.

• Take time to write out your own version of the Lord’s prayer in your own way.

By Henry Darger

• How is your private prayer different from your public prayer?
• Jesus says “do not keep babbling” (v7). In Jesus’ day a common pagan belief was that the gods could be worn down or overcome by incessant words in prayer. At the heart of this belief is the idea that we can gain control over God by praying the right way. What other approaches to prayer have you heard that basically teach this same idea (that if we’ll only learn to pray the right way God will do what we want)?
• What do you think Jesus means by, “I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full” (v5)? What is the “reward” he’s referring to? What does this teach us about God and the spiritual life?
• Try this kind of prayer today. How would you pray differently if what you were seeking was merely more of Him? Find a time and place where you’ll be undisturbed and spend at least 20 minutes in prayer with God Himself as your only request. You can use scripture (preferably Psalms, Proverbs, or the end of Job), nature, music, or art as a catalyst of meditation. Or, you can just dig in and start pouring out your heart’s desire for God, asking Him to draw close to you in a discernible way. Pay close attention to the thoughts, images, and feelings that run through your mind. How is God communicating to you? Come back here and tell us about your experience.

By Henry Darger

Before we move into the next portion of the sermon on the mount let’s stop and consider what we’ve discovered:

• Jesus announces the arrival of God’s available Kingdom, the true “promised land.” That was his gospel (Mt 4:12-17).
• Jesus proves the reality of God’s new rule by demonstrating power over human brokenness, suffering, and disease (Mt 4:23-25).
• Jesus points out that the lowest of the world, and even the persecuted, can be considered “blessed” by this new access to God’s present Kingdom (Mt 5:1-12).
• Jesus says the people who are blessed by God’s present Kingdom constitute a new humanity, becoming the “salt and light” of the world (Mt 5:13-16).
• Jesus says this new humanity who are blessed by God’s presence and power will fulfill the law and exceed the righteousness of man’s most stringent efforts (Mt 5:17-20).

As we move into a part of Jesus’ sermon that describes the greatest set of ethics ever taught we will be tempted to think that Jesus is calling us to do our very best to live that way. But that, of course, is impossible and would require us to forget everything we’ve learned up to this point; namely, that the real gospel – the real “blessing” – is God Himself (Gen 15:1). The only way, then, to be the “salt and light” that Jesus describes is to be with God, living under his good rulership as our King.

So then, how are we to be with God?

The 17th century Carmelite monk, Brother Lawrence, is well known for having written about this exact question in his little collection of letters titled, The Practice of the Presence of God. In one passage he reveals that through his years of devotion and worship he has learned the secret to remaining in God’s presence:

I have quitted all forms of devotion and set prayers but those to which my state obliges me. And I make it my business only to persevere in His holy presence, wherein I keep myself by a simple attention, and a general fond regard to GOD, which I may call an actual presence of GOD; or, to speak better, an habitual, silent, and secret conversation of the soul with GOD, which often causes in me joys and raptures inwardly, and sometimes also outwardly, so great that I am forced to use means to moderate them, and prevent their appearance to others.

So, for Brother Lawrence, the blessing of God’s presence was attained merely by turning his heart toward God, and giving God his “fond” attention. This internal practice allowed him to enjoy a sense of God’s personal presence in the midst of everything he did.

Your exercise today is to practice God’s presence. What is the best way for you to be close to God? Christians through the ages have practiced a variety of exercises, and you may already know what works best for you, but if not, here is a list of possibilities to get you started. Afterwards, come back here and share what you did and reflect on the experience:

• Set aside time and space to pray, uninterrupted, in a conversational fashion. Confess your sins. Give God your praise and gratitude.
• Read a favorite praise passage of scripture; something from Psalms, Proverbs, or anywhere that focuses on glorifying God.
• Set aside time and space to sing favorite songs of praise to God.
• Journal your prayers and thoughts to God in conversational way, much like you might write in a diary.
• Write something creative – a poem, a song, or a story – as an expression of your love, faith, and gratitude.
• Draw or paint something that expresses your praise and gratitude for God.
• Serve someone today as though you were serving God. Don’t tell them why, just provide them with something they need without expecting anything in return.
• Go somewhere inspiring and meditate on nature. You could go to the beach, to the mountains, to a lake, or some other setting that calms and inspires you. Consider what that setting communicates to you about God’s character.