Exhortation to Prayer (part 7)

(Mark 1:35) And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.
(Hebrews 7:25) Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.

The words pray and prayer are used at least 25 times in connection with our Lord in the brief record of his life contained in the four Gospels. He rose up early to pray. On at least one occasion he spent the entire night in prayer. He cried out to his Father in joy as his disciples returned from preaching and healing, and he poured out his heart in agony on the eve of his passion. He prayed before meals and miracles, he prayed alone and with others, he prayed in the Temple, he prayed in the tempest and he prayed in the hour of his greatest trial. He was the consummate man of prayer.

And neither did his ministry of intercession end with his ascension to the right hand of the Father. For, as the author of Hebrews reminds us, he [Jesus] lives forever “to make intercession” for us. Jesus as the perfect man, the un-fallen Adam and the first-fruits of redeemed humanity continues steadfastly, earnestly and joyfully in prayer…for us!

This glorious truth has at least two startling implications. First of all, as John wrote in his first epistle, “Whoever claims to live in Christ, must walk as he did.” Our predestination is not mere fire-insurance. As Paul wrote to the Romans, we have been predestined to Christ-likeness, to conformity to his character and conduct. Although we will always fall short of Christ’s perfection in regards to prayer, still the aroma of Christ, and his passion for intercession should be present in us, and discernable to those around us, even as it was to those who observed our Savior in the time of his first advent.

The second implication has to do with fellowship. True fellowship is not mere association or proximity. Everyday we spend time with associates and neighbors with whom we have little or no fellowship. True koinonia fellowship is the by-product of shared beliefs and even more importantly, shared work or common activity. The deepest intimacy and the strongest bonds are forged on the anvil of common experience and communal endeavor. Therefore, if we would know intimate fellowship with our Savior; if we would know, as Paul gushed, “the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings” then we must pray as he is praying at the right hand of the Father. We must enter into his ceaseless activity on behalf of the Church and the world. It is no marvel then that the non-praying saint feels so distant from his Lord. It is no surprise that the prayerless Christian often fails to feel in his soul what his mind assures him is true. Simply put, those who fail to participate in the Lord’s work, deprive themselves of the intimacy of the Lord’s fellowship.

But God has shown us a better way. Let us turn now Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, and let us learn how to mingle our prayers together with his here on Zion, so that we may do so all week long on earth…Come let us worship the Lord together!