Following Jesus: How Do We Walk With Him?
30 min read
Jesus' prayer life was not a religious duty — it was the oxygen of his humanity. The model he gave his disciples is not a formula but a framework for genuine relationship.
"When you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you." — Matthew 6:6
1. Jesus prayed constantly — and it was not for appearance.
Matthew 6:5-6 contrasts the prayer of the hypocrites — performed in public for human approval — with the prayer Jesus models — private, hidden, oriented toward the Father who sees in secret. Jesus himself consistently prayed in solitary places Mark 1:35Luke 5:16Luke 6:12Luke 9:18Luke 9:28. His prayer was not public demonstration of piety. It was the regular renewal of his dependence on the Father. The busyness of his ministry drove him into prayer, not away from it.
2. The Lord's Prayer is a framework, not a formula.
Matthew 6:9 — "Pray then like this." Not "pray these exact words" but "pray like this" — in this pattern, with this content, with this orientation. The Lord's Prayer contains six petitions organized around two axes: God's agenda (your name be hallowed, your Kingdom come, your will be done) and human need (daily bread, forgiveness, deliverance). Placing God's agenda first is not a religious formality. It is the reorientation of the self that genuine prayer requires.
3. "Hallowed be your name" is a revolutionary petition.
To hallow God's name is to treat God as God — as the one whose character, authority, and beauty are the organizing center of all existence. In a world where human convenience, human comfort, and human agenda typically occupy that center, "hallowed be your name" is a radical act of reorientation. It is the prayer of a person who has decided to rearrange their life around who God actually is rather than around what they want God to provide.
4. "Forgive us as we forgive" introduces a warning.
Matthew 6:12 — "Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors." Jesus follows this petition with a direct warning in verses 14–15: "If you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." Unforgiveness is the one thing Jesus explicitly names as blocking our own experience of forgiveness. This is not incidental. It is the test of whether the grace we have received has actually reached our hearts.
5. Jesus prayed specific, honest, personal prayers.
The Gethsemane prayer Luke 22:42 — "Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done." This is not a formula. It is a genuinely personal prayer that expresses genuine human anguish, genuine desire for an alternative, and genuine submission to the Father's will. The model Jesus gives is not a prayer technique. It is a relationship in which genuine desire, genuine honesty, and genuine submission coexist.
Pray for thirty minutes without a list. No requests — only listening, reflection, and response. Write a paragraph about what happened.
Submit your paragraph about the thirty-minute prayer and your journal answer about unforgiveness.
A: The hypocrites pray for human audience and approval. Jesus models prayer directed to the Father who sees in secret.
A: A radical act of reorientation — treating God as the organizing center of existence rather than a supplier of personal needs.
A: That unforgiveness toward others blocks our experience of forgiveness from the Father — it is the one blockage Jesus explicitly names.
Father, hallowed be your name. Your Kingdom come, your will be done — in my life, not just in the abstract. Give me what I need today. Forgive me as I forgive. Deliver me. Yours is the Kingdom, the power, and the glory. Amen.