Why Did Jesus Pray Anyway?

Ever ask yourself that question? Why would Jesus, God incarnate Himself, why would He ever pray? I mean, Jesus is the One who in the beginning was the Word. Jesus was with God, and He was God. And all things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. (see John 1:1-3)

But He still prayed.

So why? Why did He pray?

Love–And Something Surprising

Part of the answer is Jesus was communicating with the One He loved more than any other. The One with whom He had a relationship from the beginning of eternity. And any good relationship requires good communication. But Jesus also prayed because He could do nothing without His Father. And He said so.

Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten Son said, “I can of Myself do nothing.” (John 5:30) Jesus Christ, the Messiah and Savior of the world said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself…” (John 5:19) And He also said, “…the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.” (John 14:10)

Think about that attitude for a minute, and then think about your own attitude. Jesus Christ lived life in an attitude of dependency on our Father. I don’t know about you but for most of my life, I lived in an attitude of self sufficiency.

You Stick To Preaching, Leave The Fishing To Me

Peter had that attitude of self sufficiency too. I’m talking about the time Jesus told Peter to put his boat out and cast his net. When Jesus told him that, Peter said: But Master, we fished hard all night and caught nothing. And just maybe Peter was thinking: Listen Master, you’re amazing at what you do but you should probably stick to preaching and leave the fishing to me.

That’s how I can be. That’s how we can be–like Peter. We’re all about our self sufficiency. Peter decided to listen and he hauled in a record catch of fish. But what if Peter had followed his feeling of self sufficiency. What if instead of engaging in conversation with his Lord and listening to what He said, Peter voiced his thoughts and left his net in the boat? He would have missed out on a huge blessing. (Luke 5:3-8)

That’s how it is with us. When we’re feeling self sufficient, and we don’t engage in conversation with our Lord and listen to what He says, we don’t launch our boat and toss out our net. We miss out on huge blessings of all sorts.

The truth is, whether we feel self sufficient or not, we’re insufficient. (Stedman)

Why Should I Pray Anyway?

Jesus Christ, the One through whom all things were made; and without him was not any thing made that was made, even Jesus prayed, often, and in a variety of ways.

So if Jesus Christ lived in an attitude of dependence on our Father, and if Jesus Christ prayed, how much more do I need to pray?

And how much more do you need to pray?

Pray.

References and Resources:

To see how Jesus prayed read the previous post, or even better, read the gospels.

Ray Stedman teaching, How Jesus Prayed, RayStedman.org

Image via ThreeErin – Creative Commons