Awaken The Dawn

The Astounding Prayer Life of Jesus

We cannot assume that Jesus was continuously tempted for forty days. The time surely was mainly devoted to communion with God and the appropriation of Scripture in prayer. Using the Bible in intense intercession is com- mon to great prayer warriors. This time in the wilderness set Jesus’ course by placing God and His Word above any selfish inclinations; it was meant to show us the true foundation of all ministry. I like Dick Eastman’s state- ment: “Without the Word, our prayer has no founda- tion.” 6 Eastman’s dynamic expression “Word Praying” captures the activity of prayer and the Word that would characterize Jesus’ food for forty awesome days. This may very well be the time the Servant Songs of Isaiah became sharply focused in Jesus’ mind, bringing clarity to His destiny. Jesus’ Personal Prayer In culling the four Gospels, I found a possible twenty-one to twenty-four different illustrations of Jesus in prayer. While He also taught a great deal about praying, in this chapter, we will be concerned only with the actual depic- tions of the times Jesus prayed. Significantly, the second time we see Jesus praying is in the beginning of His Galilean ministry. Here, the power of miracle associated with the kingdom of God is profusely demonstrated. The sick are healed and the devils are cast- ed out. With wonderful results, it would seem hardly nec- essary to pray, But His success only compels Him to pray more: And in the early morning, while it was still dark, He

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