In Luke 11:1, our Lord’s disciples asked him to teach them how to pray. They had just witnessed him praying and knew that John the Baptist taught his disciples how to pray. As religious Jews, although they regularly offered psalms and homage to the Heavenly Father, they recognized a need to learn more about the power of prayer. Our Lord’s prayer life set an impressive example for his disciples, and so he was more than pleased to teach them how to pray (Matthew 6:9-13). But why?

Our Lord wanted his followers to appreciate the opportunity of making regular, worshipful addresses to God through which petitions of devotion, trust, respect and a sense of dependence would be made. Prayer is the soul’s sincere desire, uttered or unexpressed. It demonstrates a recognition of our inadequacy and our reliance upon God to make us children of His while conforming to His will (2 Corinthians 3:5). Jesus clearly understood that the opportunity of communing with the Father is a blessed provision. He not only wanted his disciples to understand this, but how prayer positively impacts spiritual growth. In looking at his life, our Lord’s ministry began with his praying. He prayed alone. He prayed all night and was never too busy to pray, even though others wanted his attention (Luke 6:12; 9:18). As we see how our Lord made use of prayer, his disciples would be well served to walk in the Master’s footsteps in this regard.

Prayer is not to be used exclusively in emergencies when we find ourselves in a difficult spot. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 tells us to pray without ceasing. This is essential, because if we lose our desire to regularly thank and worship God for all His tender mercies toward us, we may find ourselves losing the spirit of sonship. If we find that our prayer life is diminishing, it may be due to the influences of the world, the flesh or the adversary taking greater precedence than our communing with God. Therefore, we need to be aware to prevent any barrier coming between ourselves and the Father.

The scriptures point out that our Lord made regular use of prayer following his baptism at Jordan (Luke 3:21, 5:15,16), but particularly during the last week of his earthly ministry. The week began with his triumphant entry into Jerusalem (Zechariah 9:9). Much drama en-sued thereafter, ending with a horrible, yet victorious, conclusion. During this final period, our Lord was faced with many temptations by the adversary, but so were his disciples, namely Peter and Judas. As this pair had been previously taught by Jesus how to offer their petitions to God, let’s consider how both Jesus and these two disciples either successfully made use of prayer during the final week of Jesus’ ministry, or failed to make use, receive and appreciate the benefits of it.

Jesus’ Life of Prayer

At the start of the final week of our Lord’s life, he reminded his disciples that all things that are asked in prayer, if they believe, would be granted to them (Matthew 21:22). By placing God in the forefront of the choices set before us, He will provide not only our greatest needs but will direct our paths in ways that would be pleasing to Him. This admonition should have been an impressionable one for the disciples, as the end of our Lord’s final week neared. But was it?

The final day of our Lord’s ministry began in the evening of the fourteenth day of Nisan. The scriptures reveal that he had given instructions to Peter and John to prepare for the celebration of the Passover Supper in the upper room (Luke 22:7-13). This was the final meal our Lord shared with his disciples in Jerusalem prior to his crucifixion. Thereafter, Matthew 26:26-29 tells us how Jesus instituted his Memorial celebration with prayer, prior to the breaking of the bread and the drinking of the fruit of the vine.

Following the passing of the emblems and the singing of a hymn, our Lord and his faithful followers traveled to the Mount of Olives, where Jesus offered prayers to the Heavenly Father in the Garden of Gethsemane. While there, Jesus also offered perhaps his most moving prayer to the Father, as recorded in John 17. It was given because he wanted those faithful followers who were with him, as well as his entire Church class, to be protected from the evil one and to maintain their strength and endurance in his absence. Throughout it all, our Lord did not seek for his will to be done but that the Father’s will be done.

Despite the Master’s final trial and testing during the closing hours of his ministry, he ultimately suffered in silence as he prayed to the Heavenly Father while hanging on the cross. The scriptures make it clear that our Lord left his heavenly abode as the Logos to become a man. He successfully made a willing sacrifice while withstanding the temptations of the adversary during his final hours on earth, as he communed with his Heavenly Father through meditation and prayer.

To that end, our Lord proved to us that his ardent prayer life sustained him throughout the entire night of his trial. Even before he expired, his confidence in divine providence enabled him to exclaim, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit" (Luke 23:46). Additionally, our Lord’s death on the cross led not only to his return to the heavenly home that he previously had, but through his death and resurrection he provided the purchase price for the redemption of the prospective church class and all mankind. This will be universally realized when Christ’s kingdom of atoning work commences with Jesus reigning as King over the world. Thus, we see how successful our Lord’s prayer life was. His petitions were received by God and, as a result, he was faithful unto death and exalted to God’s right hand. This has led to development of the church and the future blessing of the world of mankind under Christ’s earthly kingdom.

In the case of Peter, we can see through his life beginning at Pentecost and specifically, in his epistles to the Jewish Christians scattered amongst the Gentiles, he had an active prayer life. He encouraged the Lord’s people to similarly take advantage of the throne of grace. However, prior to his spirit begettal, there is no recorded scriptural evidence that Peter resorted to and sought the Father’s direction through prayer. To the contrary, much of what the Gospel narratives reflect concerning what he said and did demonstrates that Peter relied upon self-will instead of divine counsel.

While still in the upper room, Jesus reminded Peter of his weakness to temptations, stating, "Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not" (Luke 22:31,32). Although our Lord was speaking directly to Peter in this instance, he probably was referring to all of his disciples when stating, "I have prayed for thee." Our Lord knew that his companions would abandon him, and this is why he prayed that their faith would not fail, as Satan would attempt to sift them all.

In the very next verse (33), Peter responded that he was ready to go with him both into prison and into death. However, Jesus predicted in verse 34, "I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day, before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me."

Surely, this must have been a difficult message for Peter to believe, especially since his deep love and reverence for the Lord was manifested later when he used a sword to cut off the ear of the high priest’s servant, Malchus in the Garden of Gethsemane (John 18:10). Additionally, after the disciples fled when Jesus was arrested, it was Simon Peter who meekly followed behind to the residence of the high priest and stood by the door to see what would become of his beloved Master.

It wasn’t until the apostle was recognized by three strangers as someone who was a follower of the Lord, which Peter denied, that the cock crowed. Jesus looked sympathetically upon him in acknowledgement that his prophecy had been fulfilled. It was after these incidents that Peter wept bitterly (Luke 22:62). Peter knew that he had been overconfident with regard to his own proclamation of loyalty to the Lord. He should have waited upon God to both direct his path and give him strength during this critical time period. What follows thereafter was that Peter wept bitterly, perhaps feeling remorse for not keeping awake in the garden when Jesus told him to pray that he enter not into temptation (Matthew 26:40, 41).

According to the account, our Lord desired his disciples to remain awake while he entered further into the garden to quietly meditate and commune with Jehovah alone. To his disappointment, he found the eleven fast asleep, and chided Peter by asking, "What, could ye not watch with me one hour" (Matthew 26:40)? It is true that later our Lord became resigned to the fact that his weary disciples were unable to remain awake and said, "Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners" (Matthew 26:45 NASB). Based upon the complete scriptural record, it would be difficult to conclude that Peter’s prayer life was successful during the final week of our Lord’s ministry.

Had he used prayer, Peter would have been more alert to the "wiles" of the adversary (Ephesians 6:11) that caused him to deny Jesus. Peter was, however, a person of good heart intentions, despite acting upon impulse. Because of this, Jesus was able to pray to the Father for Peter and thus recover him to later be used in the Lord’s service (Luke 22:31, 32).

Jesus individually called the twelve and dedicated them to the office of apostleship (Luke 6:13). We think that our Lord chose the twelve based upon how they outwardly projected themselves as good men and their willingness to forsake their vocations and activities to follow him. The twelve included Judas who, like Peter, was taught to pray. However, the scriptures fail to reveal that he sought to make his prayers known to the Father that He might direct his paths. Rather than show a desire of coming to the throne of grace to make his petitions to God, there is clearer scriptural evidence that Judas showed a greater reverence towards money.

Judas was entrusted by Jesus to serve as treasurer for his disciples. Yet, his insatiable love for money proved to be a snare for this privilege given to him. Notably in John 12:5, 6, Judas complained that Mary wasted ointment by anointing our Lord prior to his crucifixion. Judas claimed the ointment could have been sold to benefit the poor. He did this desiring the money that selling the ointment would have brought. During the final week of Jesus’ life, Judas agreed to betray him by handing him over to the chief priests. He agreed to lead them to our Lord for a payment of 30 pieces of silver (Matthew 26:15). As someone who received direct instruction from our Lord, Judas should have internalized the spirit of the Apostle Paul’s words spoken after the Lord had been resurrected and the Gospel had gone out to the Gentiles, "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil" (1 Timothy 6:10 RV). Judas’ betrayal shows that he did not have a supreme love for God and Jesus and, therefore, did not pray for help when faced the temptation to betray our Lord for money.

After the Master told Judas (Matthew 26:25) that he was the one who would betray Jesus, rather than reconsider his actions or pray for help, Judas left the upper room to carry out his wicked deed. The selfish heart of Judas drove him to leave this noble company of brethren in the upper room to inform the chief priests of Jesus’ whereabouts, leading to his capture. When his eyes were opened to the realization that he betrayed innocent blood, it was too late. He could no longer live with himself, and rather than ask for forgiveness through prayer, he returned the silver and committed suicide (Matthew 27:4,5).

Intentionally taking one’s own life is usually done out of despair and extreme stress. We see this in the case of Judas when his eyes were finally opened to recognize that he had betrayed the innocent blood of his Master. Had he, before this act, approached God, and with a contrite heart taken heed to the Lord’s words, "forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil" (Matthew 6:12,13), perhaps he would have stopped following the course that he ultimately took. However, Jesus knew that Judas was corrupt and did not pray for him as he did for Peter. Rather, Jesus said, "it had been good for that man if he had not been born" (Matthew 26:24).

The examples of Jesus, Peter and Judas with respect to prayer have profound implications for our Christian walk. Yes, we should be constant in prayer as evidenced by the Master throughout his ministry. This resulted in his faithfulness in every aspect of his consecrated walk. As with Peter, we should not be confident in our own ability to be sustained without seeking divine help, strength and direction, only to regret later our failure to heed instruction from the Lord. Finally, by ensuring that our prayer lives remain an extension of our Christian walk, we can be assured that God will touch our hearts such that under no circumstance would we willfully deny the principles of righteousness and, like Judas, betray our Lord, who bought us with his own precious blood. May the examples contained in our consideration of the importance of prayer be indelibly stamped in our characters as we strive to be faithful even unto death (Revelation 2:10).