Learning to Pray From What You Have Learned

Seeing and hearing Jesus praying in the garden of Gethsemane is one of the most revealing aspects into the humanity of Christ in Scripture. It is found in Matthew 26:36 – 46, Mark 14:32 – 42, and Luke 22:39 – 46. In Mark’s account you hear Jesus give instructions to His disciples to, “Sit here while I pray.” You wonder how many times the disciples had heard the Lord say this to them. At least once when Jesus returned from such a time is the occasion when one of His disciples said, “Lord, teach us to pray…” Luke 11:1.

In Gethsemane, Jesus took with Him Peter, James, and John, “…and began to be greatly distressed and troubled.” The word “greatly distressed” is the Greek word, ek-tham-bos, and literally means to be afraid at the sight of something extremely unusual, to be hit with something. It is closely associated with sight. The second word, “troubled,” is the Greek word aday-moneh, which means to be weighted down with a great heaviness. There are three words for “depression” in Greek, and this one is used to describe the greatest depression. Jesus could see more clearly than ever, the awful sight of the Cross, and it weighed extremely heavy over Him.

He prayed, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” 14:36. Prayer is worship. It is going before God in humble gratitude that He invites you into His presence. It is calling upon the Lord, who is greatly to be praised. The first words from Jesus in His prayer, with this terrible vision of the Cross pressing in on Him, were words of praise, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you.”

Praise is the result of having learned something of God. There is a difference between learning something about God and learning something of God. When you learn something of God, He Himself has revealed it to you and given you wisdom to receive it. This comes before praise and is never separated from it. Calling God, Abba, Father, was something God had revealed to His Son. Declaring, all things are possible for you, was something Jesus had learned from His Father. The true study of God’s word always leads to and forms praise to God for who He is, what He has done, and promised to do. Learning of Him and by Him, prepares you for the dark time of awful trial and heaviness that comes upon every follower of Christ. It came upon Jesus, and He prayed.

And Jesus asked the Father to change this terrible situation. We can all identify with that request. But what must be learned, is the rest of His request, “Yet not what I will, but what you will.” Jesus is again expressing praise with this agonizing prayer by declaring to God that the Father’s desire is greater than the request for changing the situation. The will of God is both the plan and desire of God. It is what pleases the Father. Learning to express your desires, all of your desires, to the Father, and then to submit them to His will because you have learned from Him, of Him, is what it means to worship the Father in spirit and truth.

Today, with each of your prayer requests, know that you can trust the Father’s desire for that person or situation, and ask Him for His will to be done. In doing so you will be praising God because you have learned from Him, of His excellent greatness, greater than any difficulty or situation you will ever encounter. Jesus did and it pleased the Father.