The purpose of prayer
Prayer is about spending time with God so that our minds are changed to be more like His
God doesn’t answer prayer because we pray persistently. We pray persistently because God answers prayer.” — Warren Wiersbe
For the last couple of decades, I have preached on the cross of Christ every Sunday in March and then on His resurrection every Sunday in April. As I’ve looked at the events surrounding His death, I’ve been overwhelmed by His prayer in Gethsemane, which is recorded in Matthew 26:36–46, as well as in Mark and Luke. It’s amazing that each of the synoptic gospels records this, since the disciples were asleep! How did they know what Jesus said? Because God really wanted us to know.
The setting
The Garden of Gethsemane (which means “oil press”) was on the side of the Mount of Olives, a half mile from Jerusalem on the way to Bethany. According to Matthew, Jesus told eight of His disciples to sit at the Garden entrance. He then took His inner three—Peter, James, and John—and went in. He asked them to stay awake and be alert and pray, while He went on further, “a stone’s throw” away (Luke 22:41 NASB). Then He began to pray—in grief and sorrow.
Jesus’ teaching about prayer
Jesus had taught His disciples about prayer before (Matt. 6:5–13). It was not to be done for show nor with meaningless repetition. Prayer is done knowing that God already knows our needs. He then gave them (and us) a sample prayer (vv. 9–13). He taught us to pray to the Father, to end with “Amen,” and to make it a “praise sandwich.”
He also taught us to pray in His name (John 16:24). In John 17, Jesus was praying directly to God for others. But in Matthew 26, Jesus was praying for Himself. So, in a sense, this is our model for how we should normally pray.
The model prayer (Matt. 26:38b–44)
This prayer is quite different from most of our prayers. Yes, He did ask God for something; three times He asked for the “cup” to pass from Him (vv. 39, 42, 44). This cup was God’s plan for Jesus to suffer and die, taking all the sins of the world. As such, He would be separated from God (Matt. 27:46). Jesus was honest; He told God He didn’t want it to happen. There was a struggle in His soul—as a man on earth. Usually, our prayers would end there; we stop at asking for things. But Jesus went on. He added, “yet not as I will, but as You will” (v. 39), not just once, but all three times. He entrusted the results to God.
You see, the purpose of prayer is not to try to get God to change His mind. It’s really the opposite. Praying should be our spending time with God so that our minds are changed to His. That’s why this prayer is our model—Jesus prayed until He was totally ready to do God’s will.
It was painful, of course. Luke 22:44 says that He prayed so hard, blood came out with His sweat! But after that, He was ready (Matt. 26:46).
How do we pray?
Are we selfish, only praying for ourselves—for health, happiness, etc.? That’s treating God as a servant. If we are really serious about prayer, we must be willing to give up what we want. We must be willing to allow God to change us.
We can do nothing to save ourselves, and the same is true after salvation. We must allow God to change our minds, our thoughts, and our desires. That comes from spending time with Him, meditating on His Word, seeing Him for who He is. Only when our hearts are changed can He give us what we want. That’s because we will have come to want what He wants (Psalm 37:4).
Prayer changes us
What does prayer do? As we pray, it changes the situation. It changes other people. But there is one more thing that it does—prayer changes us. I was “supposed” to be an architect—that’s what I studied to become. I prayed God would make me a good one. Then He gave me a burden for Kochi. I prayed He would send someone to Kochi as a missionary. And I became the answer to my prayers! By praying, God changed my heart to accept His will: to become a missionary to Kochi.
Prayer is not commanding God, telling Him what to do. Yes, it’s fine to be honest with God, telling Him what we are thinking and feeling, even what we want. But we must allow God to change us through prayer. The more time we spend with Him, the more He changes us. That is how it was with Jesus.