What Were You Taught About Prayer?

Many of us when we were little got told to fold your hands, close your eyes, and bow your head as we prayed.  Maybe we even kneeled by the bed to say our prayers before bed. What if I told you Jesus never told his disciples that? As a matter of fact, Paul tells in in 1 Thessalonians 5:17, that we are to pray without ceasing. So obviously, praying before bed, on our knees, head bowed, eyes closed and hands folded is not the only position for prayer.

We will start looking at the positions of prayer with Jesus in John 17:1,

When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven,

This whole time after the Last Supper, Jesus had been walking and talking with His disciples. He told them that the time has come that they will leave Him and they would scatter back to their homes. We know at this point Jesus was standing because you can’t walk looking up without running into something or tripping. Jesus stopped what He was doing and looked up to His Father to pray.

Shortly after this prayer we see that when they did reach the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus took Peter, James, and John to go with Him leaving the other disciples to sit and wait for Him to pray. He didn’t go very far, they could all probably hear Him pray. In Luke 29:41, Luke states that Jesus was only a stone’s throw away. He had asked Peter, James, and John to keep watch as He prayed. This time when He prayed He knelt down to pray.

The last time we see Jesus praying was when He was on the cross with His arms out wide. Think about it, this is God we are talking about and at any time He could have said, “Enough is enough! I have had it and you are all toast.” BUT He didn’t instead He endured the cross and asked His Father to forgive those that had hurt Him, nailed Him to the cross. He chose at that time to pray for those around Him while still being on the cross. He could have decided to freak everyone out by taking and folding His hands in prayer, but He didn’t. With His arms stretched out, He chose to show love through forgiveness.

Like Jesus, Moses asked for forgiveness of the Israelites while He was on the mountain with God getting the 10 commandments. In Exodus 34, we see Moses bow his head before God as he asked for forgiveness not just for himself but all of Israel.

Lastly, let’s take a look at David in 1 Chronicles 17. We see in verse 16, David went in before the LORD, sat down and basically had a One on one conversation with Him. There is plenty of time to pray when you are sitting down. Just get in the car and get on a freeway. You will have plenty of time sitting in traffic to pray and a good reason to pray.

Pray continuously, no matter what your position is, God’s end of the phone line is always open.