Ezra – Ezra 8:21 -

So often we find in the Bible that the greatest answers to prayer are born out of situations where men and women have no other way out other than to cry out to God. When God’s people were faced with the Red Sea, with enormous armies, or in other desparate circumstances, they cry out to God and He comes down to deliver them. This prayer though is a bit different, and is set in the context of Ezra bringing back some of the exiled people of God from Babylon to Israel.

As the people begin on their journey, they are faced with many dangers on the road from ‘enemies’ as Ezra calls them, and they have every possibility of going to the King of Babylon and asking him for protection, as the King is fully in support of the journey. Ezra however doesn’t do this, and he gives this reason in verse 22:

‘I was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers and horsemen to protect us from enemies on the road, because we had told the king, “The gracious hand of our God is on everyone who looks to him, but his great anger is against all who forsake him.”‘ 

It seems as if Ezra must have been talking about His God much to King Artaxerxes, and lifting Him up as one who is gracious to those who put their trust in Him, but not to those who forsake Him. Ezra was essentially boasting about His God, and the protection and care that He gives to His people, and he is now struggling to go to the same King and to ask for help and protection along the way home. In chapter 7 we read of all the things that the King is doing already to support Ezra’s journey, so receiving help isn’t the issue – there’s clearly nothing wrong with it. The issue is that Ezra is concerned that if he leans on the King for everything he needs, all his claims about his God will be brought to nothing. What arises then is an opportunity for God to prove His protection and care of His people, and that’s exactly what happens. Ezra says so simply in the next verse (23):

‘So we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and he answered our prayer.’

Ezra was willing to step out into a place of danger, and possibly fatal risk, for the sake of God’s Name being honoured amongst those he has been speaking to about Him.

I wonder if we might find ourselves in similar situations. Hopefully as Christians we are those who do make similar claims to those Ezra was making, telling those around us of the protection, provision, and direction that God gives to our lives. Somtimes though, if we’re honest, it can be quite hard to claim some of those things as you know that when you do people will be watching, and there are plenty of people out there who are just looking for an opportunity to discredit Christianity, and show that they are right when they say what we believe is rubbish. Ultimately it’s quite possible that lots of these people are simply looking for a way out of believing themselves, but they’re out there, and it gives us a choice – do we lift up our God for all to see, or do we keep quiet, just in case He doesn’t come through for us? If we keep quiet then it may well be an indicator that we don’t actually believe the promises of God, but if we do speak then we are faced with a second question – will we allow God to show He is on our side, and that our bold claims are true, or will we constantly turn to other places for help and give God no chance to show Himself?

What we certainly are not to do is to run into all kinds of dangerous situations needlessly, assuming God will save us every time – that would be far too presumptious. However, when the opportunity is thrown to us as it was to Ezra, we ought to be men and women who are willing to fast, pray, and throw ourselves onto God’s mercy, rather than recieve human help. It’s when we are willing to step out into those kinds of situations that the claims we make will be backed up, and our God will be shown off to those who are watching our lives for evidence that our profession is real.

Jesus – Luke 23:46 -

To face death is an experience that I guess none of us can really identify with until it’s too late to describe, but that’s what Jesus is facing now. In the last seconds before dying Jesus cries out this prayer of trust in, and submission to His Father. It isn’t a request Jesus is making, but simply a declaration that His Father is the one who He will trust with His Spirit.

We know that this was not any ordinary man crying out these words, but let’s not take that too far – Jesus still had to face the moment of death as something He’d never faced before. The Bible clearly says that Jesus endured everything that we endure, and so there must have been a temptation to be afraid of what was beyond that ‘final curtain’. Jesus wouldn’t have been fully human if He had just faced death with a complete nonchalance, and not being affected by it at all, but rather it’s in the last few hours of His life that Jesus humanity comes to the fore as much, if not more than any other time as He even sweats drops of blood even at the thought of enduring the cross. However, despite this, in those last moments, Jesus gives us an incredible example of how we too ought to face not just death, but all of those uncertain and frightening experiences that are littered throughout our lives.

It would be quite easy for a solid and strong faith in God, that has endured through all the trials of life to wilt under the pressure of the complete unknown of death. After all, we’ve seen God deliver people from trials, and take them through suffering and pain, but we’ve never seen anyone safe and sound after that moment of death. But Jesus faith doesn’t fail – His faith in His Father, who He has trusted throughout His earthly life remains intact, and He is willing to give up His life in full confidence that God will look after Him, and as the Bible says, will not allow His ‘Holy One’ to see corruption.

Remember that at any time Jesus could have taken things into His own hands and got down from that cross, but again, He doesn’t do that, but chooses instead to accept His Father’s will for Him, and trust that He will not let Him down.

As Jesus speaks He is quoting from Psalm 31 verse 5, a Psalm where King David gives quite a vivid description of the trouble he is in – just take a look at these words:

‘I am a reproach among all my enemies,
But especially among my neighbors, 
And am repulsive to my acquaintances; 
Those who see me outside flee from me.
 I am forgotten like a dead man, out of mind;
 I am like a broken vessel.
 For I hear the slander of many;
 Fear is on every side; 
 While they take counsel together against me, 
 They scheme to take away my life.’ (Psalm 31:11-13)

David describes himself as having ‘fear on every side’. How might he have responded? Run away from the trouble, try and take care of it himself, or simply try and compromise to make the trouble go away. Just like Jesus, David does none of these things, but speaks powerful words of trust in his God:

But as for me, I trust in You, O LORD;
I say, “You are my God.”
My times are in Your hand;
Deliver me from the hand of my enemies, 
And from those who persecute me.
Make Your face shine upon Your servant;
Save me for Your mercies’ sake.
Do not let me be ashamed, O LORD, for I have called upon You;
Let the wicked be ashamed; 
Let them be silent in the grave. (Psalm 31:14-17)

We too, just as David, and our ultimate example the Lord Jesus did, can face the trouble, pain and suffering of this world, not with an attitude of fear and trepidation of what is coming. Neither with an attitude of control where we try and take everything into our own hands, but with an attitude of complete trust in a faithful Father who will take us all the way through until we too see Him face-to-face, and rejoice with a fullness of joy in His presence. Let us say whenever we are treated wrongly, unfairly, or suffer at the hands of others, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit’.

Jesus – Luke 23:34 –

Out of all the prayers we find in the Bible, this one should challenge us more than any other, and yet at the same it time should also be a thrilling thing for us to look on at. Here’s the situation – Jesus has just gone through just about the most horrendous 24 hours He could possibly have gone through. He’s been betrayed by one of His closest friends, and deserted by the rest of His friends. He’s been tried unfairly by the Jews, and sentenced to death by the Romans though He’s done nothing wrong. He’s been beaten, mocked, scourged, spat at, and right now He is hanging on a cross in agony, staring certain death in the face, and even having to go through the rejection of His Father.

Words can’t even begin to describe the suffering and pain the Jesus is going through, and as He looks down from the cross, He looks right into the faces of some of His worst tormentors – the Roman soldiers responsible for hammering the nails into His hands and feet, and the religious Jews responsible for His being sentenced to death. What would you think He would have done at that point? What would most people have done? My guess is most people would hurl insults and abuse at their enemies, their frustration overflowing in a torrent of anger and harsh words, but Jesus did nothing of the sort.

Incredibly Jesus looks at these people and makes a statement full of compassion. He doesn’t look down and wish judgment and condemnationon these people, though that would be more than justified, but He cries out to His Father that He would forgive these people. Jesus is giving the ultimate example of the command He gave His own disciples, maybe 3 years earlier – ‘But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you’ (Matthew 5:44). I wonder if there were any disciples listening to that thinking ‘no way – that’s impossible’. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were, but there are no excuses now – Jesus has shown all of His people the way by praying blessing on those causing Him unequalled pain and suffering.

What brings this home even stronger is to ask the question ‘where would I have been as Jesus said these words?’ The honest answer to that question is that we would have been either hammering the nails, crying for Jesus execution, or even betraying Jesus to death because naturally that’s what all of us are like, we sinful haters of God, and we run from light whenever it comes into our lives. So here’s the truth – Jesus was looking down at you, your sin, your shame and He was crying out ‘Father forgive them’. That’s what the Gospel is all about – Jesus loved His enemies enough to make them His friends – shouldn’t that jsut blow us away every time we hear it? Jesus loved you enough despite who you are to give everything He had for you.

Not only should this blow us away, but it should envoke a particular response – the Bible says that because God loved us, we also love Him back, and when we love Him we want to obey Him, so no matter how difficult the command, we long to fulfil it to bring glory to the God who loved us and gave Himself for us.

Truth is, it is absolutely impossible for us to fulfil the command to love our enemies – I’m sure you know that already, but it’s love for Jesus that drives us to do all we can to be like Him, and to even give ourselves for those who treat us like dirt. What better prayer could we pray in response to all this than to get down on our knees and to cry out, ‘Lord, help me to love like you did. Help me to give myself not just to those who treat me well, but to those who even repay my kindness with hatred.’ It’s a serious and difficult prayer to pray, but God is in the business of changing weak, sinful people like us into people who can really live like Jesus and for whom love is the predominant characteristic of their lives.

Jesus – Matthew 26:39 –

As we begin looking at this incredible prayer we can ask one incredible question – did Jesus always get what He prayed for? Surprising as it may be, when you look at this prayer the answer has to be no. The night before the crucifixion, Jesus knows exactly what is going to happen to Him the next day, and He is in agony. He takes a few of His disciples to pray with Him in the garden of Gethsemane – they fall asleep, but Jesus gets down on His face before His Father and asks for one thing – that He be released from the pain and torment of the next day. Did Jesus get what He asked for? Obviously not, but this deep and powerful interaction between Father and Son can teach us so much about prayer.

It’s ok to be deeply moved by suffering in this life. Sometimes we can think that to be the best Christian we can be we have to stand up to everything that comes our way without flinching, or succumbing in any way to anxiety and fear. This account shows us that clearly isn’t the case – Jesus was suffering so much at just the thought of what He was going to go through the next day, and He showed it to His closest friends. Sometimes we can want to put up such a brave face to show we’re coping with everything in life when the best thing we can do is simply be honest about what is going on inside. If we’re struggling with fear we should tell someone, if anxiety is getting the better of us, then go to someone you trust and ask them to pray with you. Most importantly of all, we shouldn’t try and hide it from God – it’s incredibly daft to even attempt it, but we do. The best thing we can do is simpy be honest about our weakness, not to make an announcement of it to the whole world, but to those closest to us, that we might find help and support in our time of need.

It’s ok to tell God exactly how you are feeling. I’m pretty sure that Jesus knew exactly what the answer to His prayer was going to be. he knew that the cross was the only way of accomplishing salvation for mankind, and He knew that His Father wanted Him to go through with it – but Jesus still did not want to go. It would be easy for us to be hyper-spiritual and if it was anyone other than Jesus we’d rip them to shreds about how they should be more willing to suffer and sacrifice, but this isn’t just anyone, this is the Son of God, and He is honest enough to say He doesn’t want to go through the pain. Isn’t that such a release for us – it’s ok to be honest about how you are feeling. We shouldn’t bottle it up, that won’t help at all, but we can be totally transparent with God and with people we trust – it’s the best way of dealing with all that is going on inside of us.

It isn’t always a lack of faith that means our prayers aren’t answered. Just a quick kind of side-note here – there are lots of people who completely equate how much faith you have with receiving whatever you want from God. They say ‘if you have enough faith then of course God will give you what you ask’. This account shows how foolish that is – the Bible does link our faith with answers to prayer, but there are times when you can have all the faith in the world (Jesus did) and God simply answers ‘no’ to your request.

There is one critical phrase that should always be in our prayers. The incredible thing about this prayer if Jesus is this – if Jesus desire had been fulfilled, then not only would we all be in a complete mess, but God’s plan of salvation would have failed. Was it sinful for Jesus to want that? Clearly not, He never sinned, but He had to add this small but powerful phrase to what He wanted – ‘not as I will, but as you will’. We can learn so much from the absolute submission of Jesus to His Father. Jesus didn’t see prayer as a means to getting all that He wanted, but He saw it as a means of searching out the plan of His Father for His life. Jesus prayers were not all about Him and what He could get, but about His Father, and how much glory He could receive from His life, even when the path it took Him down was one of pain and suffering. We too should aim for this absolute submission – there’s no problem telling God how you feel and what you want, as long as your final cry is this: ‘your will be done.’

Jesus – John 17:1-26 -

In John chapter 17 we have an incredible window into the interaction of Jesus, the Son of God dwelling in a body, with His Father in heaven. There is so much truth in the chapter that we could chew on for hours, but there are also very specific things that Jesus asks for, and the incredible thing is that He is not just praying for the disciples He sees in front of Him, but He is praying for all who will believe in the future. If you’re a Christian then Jesus prays and desires these things for you, so what could be better than just to dwell on them for a few minutes and see what we find. I have picked out the 3 main requests that it seems Jesus makes:

Sanctify them – Jesus prays for all His followers that they would be ‘sanctified’ or ‘set apart’ from the world. He desires that His people would be incredibly distinctive and different from all those around them. He wants people to look at the lives that Christians live, and for them to ask questions of them – why are you like that? Why are you so different to me? Jesus doesn’t want His people to become a ‘holy huddle’ to the extent that no-one else ever sees them, as can be tempting to pursue as a Christian sometimes, but He wants them to let their ‘light shine’ in the darkness, and in the process bring glory to Him.

I’m sure this is something that every Christian is already longing for and looking for, and sometimes striving for in their life, so how encouraging that Jesus has already prayed for you that it would become a reality in your life. God is not opposed to this happenning to you, but Jesus desires it so much that He is willing to intercede for you, and cry out to His Father to make it happen in you. Jesus also recognises that there is an enemy to this happening, and so He prays that His followers would be kept from the ‘evil one’ – the one who will constantly tempt us with evil, knock us back with accusations, and take us captive with crippling lies. Notice as well the means by which Jesus prays that we would be sanctified – by God’s word. To be honest I’m sure most of us see our sanctification – the process of being changed to be like Jesus to be mainly hard-work, dedication, and a willingness to do anything to put our lives right. That is part true, but isn’t the primary way that Jesus sees it. Rather then the agent of change being our hard work, Jesus sees the agent of change as God’s living and powerful word. It says something similar in Romans 12 – ‘be transformed by the renewing of your mind’. Yes we have to work hard to kill sin and become righteous, but the work begins inside of us as God’s word changes thoughts and attitudes, replacing the lies with truth, and setting us free from invisible barriers that in the past have stopped us living the way we ought to. There are many Christians who are not living in victory not because they are not trying hard enough, but because they haven’t taken the time to study and hear God’s word, and allowed the truth to penetrate them so deeply that it transforms from the inside out. All of us who desire to be holy should actively pursue time to allow God to speak us, and to do a changing work in the depths of who we are.

Make them one – This second request of Jesus flows right out of the first one. How does the Bible sum up the lifestyle that Christians are to show to the world? One word – love. Rather than the self-centredness that rules in the world, Jesus wants His people to be those who give of themselves to those around them, and what better place to show that off than in the church – God’s family here on earth. Jesus wants His people to be one, not because they all look the same, talk the same, like the same things, have the same personalities or sense of humour, but because they all have a deep love for Him, and they all have a deep love for each other. Love is the glue that will hold any relationship together. Disagreements and differences of opinion are bound to come, but when there’s a commitment of love they can all be worked through. Jesus wants His people to stick together, to overcome the world together, and to do it in such a way that the world looks on in awe. It isn’t enough to be pursuing holiness on our own – Jesus says it has to be done (and only will be done) within the family of God, the church.

The final request that Jesus makes is this: ‘Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am’.

Could there be anything more thrilling than this statement? If you are a Christian today then Jesus wants you to be with Him in heaven. He isn’t just doing it because He feels He has to, or because His Father told Him to. He isn’t a reluctant Saviour, dreading the day when He actually has to live with the lot of us – He really wants you to be with Him, to share in His glory and perfection for all eternity. What an incredible future we have to look forward to, and what a loving Saviour we have who would give Himself because He wanted us with Him – if that doesn’t spur you on, then I’m not sure what will!