A Time for Prayer

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered during the joint Lenten service held at Emanuel Reformed Church on Sunday evening, the 1st of March, 2020.  Participating in the joint services are Beck's Reformed, Emanuel Reformed, Memorial Evangelical & Reformed, Paul's Chapel, and Pilgrim Reformed Churches.]

Good evening, Families!  Today is the first Sunday in Lent, that season in the Christian calendar when we reflect on all that Jesus did for us.  We look specifically at His sacrifice for us, as this time leads directly to the cross and our Easter celebration.

Our observance of Lent traditionally mirrors the 40 days that Jesus spent in the wilderness, led there by God’s Holy Spirit to be tempted by Satan.  During that time, Jesus went without eating and endured the temptations of Satan – a trial that would have easily broken us.  The Gospel writers don’t mention it, but I am sure that Jesus prayed the whole time, too.  I say that because Jesus often spent time in prayer with His Father, seeking His strength, guidance, and even His help, mainly for us poor sinners.

Prayer was very important to Jesus.  He even gave us an example to model our own prayers after, what we call the Lord’s Prayer.  Yes, prayer was very important to Jesus, so we know it is very important to God.

Let me give you one example of Jesus not only speaking privately with His Father, but also encouraging His disciples to pray, too.  Knowing that His walk on earth would soon draw to a horrible, painful close, our Lord knew this was indeed a time for prayer.  Our text comes from the 22nd chapter of the Gospel account of the Apostle Luke, verses 39 through 46, and I’ll be reading from the New King James Version of our Holy Bible…

39 Coming out, He went to the Mount of Olives, as He was accustomed, and His disciples also followed Him. 40 When He came to the place, He said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.”

41 And He was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and prayed, 42 saying, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” 43 Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him. 44 And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

45 When He rose up from prayer, and had come to His disciples, He found them sleeping from sorrow. 46 Then He said to them, “Why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation.”

--Luke 22:39-46 (NKJV)

Let us pray… Father God, Your Son Jesu walked this earth fully Human yet still fully Divine.  And He knew just how important it is to spend time with You in prayer.  By this we know how much You value our time together, our prayer time.  And Father, there are those moments when we come to You and ask, just as Jesus asked, that You take away this cup that is before us, whatever hardship it is we are facing.  We ask this out of our pain, even all the while knowing that Your will must be done.  It is only by Your will that we have hope of salvation.  Yet still we pray, seeking Your strength and courage to continue the road that lies ahead.  Help us, please Father, in these times of need.  Remind us to come to You first and foremost, in humble prayer.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might better understand the message You bring us this evening.  Speak to our hearts that we might better discern Your will for our lives.  In the blessed name of Christ Jesus we pray.  Amen.


When Robert Louis Stevenson was a young boy he once remarked to his mother, "Momma, you can't be good without praying."  "How do you know, Robert?", she asked.  He quickly answered, "Because I've tried!"

This brings to mind a story about another little fellow, one who had been sent to his room because he had been misbehaving.  A short time later he came out and said to his mother, "I've been thinking about what I did and I said a prayer."  "That's fine," his mother replied.  "If you ask God to make you good, He will help you."  "Oh, I didn't ask Him to help me be good," replied the boy.  "I asked Him to help you put up with me."


Even children can understand the importance and power of a good prayer at the right time.  Of course, their angle might be just a bit different from ours, but God knows what is in their hearts.  And He loves to hear from them, just as He loves to hear from us.

What is prayer but simply our way of talking with God.  But we need to make sure we’re talking with Him, and not just to Him.  We need to pause every now and then, and listen for His quiet response.


As I said earlier, we are now in the season of Lent when we remember the sacrifice Jesus made for us.  It is a time of reflection, a time of self-examination, a time of confession, a time of repentance, a time of prayer.  We need to look closely at ourselves, at how we live our daily lives, at how we carry out Jesus’ commands.

And we need to reflect on exactly what Jesus did and how His sacrifice impacts us, on what His suffering really means to us.  We need to understand that His greatest suffering came not from the beatings or the humiliations or the nails or the cross.  His greatest suffering was not physical, but spiritual.  The Spotless Lamb, the One who was without sin, took on all the sins of all the world for all time.  Our sin is what separates us from God, beginning with Adam and Eve.  Jesus took our sin so we can be reunited with God, but in doing so, He Himself became separated from God for the first time ever!  That is torment!  That is suffering!  And that is what He did for us!


That is what Jesus did for us, what He means to us.  Without His act, without God’s mercy and grace, we would have no hope.  As we reflect on this, we need to determine if we are living our life the way Jesus wants us to live.  After all, I would think this is the least we can do to say, “Thank You”.

As we examine ourselves, looking into our hearts, taking note of our thoughts and actions even if just for one day, we will see areas where we come up short.  We’ll see problems we need to work on, broken parts we need to fix.  We’ll see sins, disobediences, we need to repent of.

And then, if we’re truly intent on becoming better in God’s eyes, if we really mean it when we say we follow Jesus, if we want to be true to the title of Christian, we will do as Jesus did so often and turn to our Father in prayer.  We will make time to pray, seeking God’s guidance, strength, encouragement, help, and forgiveness.  If ever there was a time to pray, it is now, during Lent.


Now, prayer can take many forms, but at its basics it is a means of communication with God.  A prayer can be as simple as, “Father, today is going great for me and I just want to say thank You!”  Or, “Father, the day is falling apart around me and I need Your help.”  It can be full of words spoken, or filled with time listening to our hearts for God’s reply.  It can be short, or we can be long winded.

The prayer Jesus raised in our scripture reading didn’t seem too long, though long enough for His disciples to have fallen asleep.  I imagine His prayers in the wilderness might have been some of each, both short and long, since He spent 40 days there.  Earlier in his Gospel account, in chapter 6 verse 12, Luke tells us of one instance when Jesus spent a lot of time talking with His Father…

12 Now it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.

--Luke 6:12 (NKJV)

All night long Jesus prayed.  We don’t know what Jesus prayed, what He sought God’s help with, but we do know what happened the next morning.  Verse 13 tells us that Jesus called all His disciples together and chose from among them the twelve He would also name Apostles.

By this time in His ministry, many people had chosen to follow Jesus, to be His disciples.  He had already called Peter and Andrew and James and John and Matthew and the rest to be His disciples, but now He named them Apostles, knowing the roles they would each take in the salvation of man.  That was a pretty big decision, wasn’t it, one best made only after seeking God’s guidance.  And this should serve as our example to follow.


Twice in our scripture reading, Jesus told His disciples to pray for God’s help that they not fall prey to Satan and his temptations.  If Jesus thought it serious enough that His own followers pray for help in resisting temptation that He told them twice, don’t you think it’s something we should consider doing ourselves?  We should pray, lest we enter into temptation!  Jesus was able to resist everything Satan could throw at Him, but like I mentioned to my Pilgrim family, we humans aren’t even able to resist the temptation to talk bad about someone we dislike!

We need to pray for God’s help anytime we feel tempted to do something we know full well is wrong.  And family, if this means that we need to be in constant 24/7 prayer, then so be it.  The Apostle Paul, in his 1st letter to the Thessalonians, chapter 5, verses 16 through 18 tells us to…

16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

--1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NKJV)

Pray without ceasing!  Can we be in prayer with God without ever speaking or thinking a single word?  Sure we can, when we pray from our hearts, through God’s own Holy Spirit within us.  And Paul doesn’t really mean we should do nothing but pray.  We wouldn’t last very long if we didn’t eat and sleep some of the time, not to mention other things that we really must do to maintain mortal life.  But we can be in prayer for all things, in all things, rejoicing for all that God does for us, giving thanks for the great sacrifice Jesus made on our behalf.  Why should we pray?  Because it is the will of God in Christ Jesus for us.


Family, this is a time to reflect on the full sacrifice our Lord Jesus gave.  This is a time to look deeply within ourselves, to see ourselves as God sees us.  This is a time to take note of our disobediences and turn from them, stop doing them, let go of those sins that keep us separated from our Father in heaven.  This is a time to pray.

Pray for God’s wisdom in understanding just what Jesus did for us, what it truly means to us.  Pray for God’s forgiveness when we find we just can’t completely let go of the world.  Pray for God’s help as we turn away from our favorite sin, that we are not tempted to turn back to it.  Pray for God’s protection from Satan’s traps.

And as we pray, let’s not forget to thank God and Jesus for all that they have done for us, just because they love us.  Just pray, family, for this is a time for prayer.  In the glorious name of the true Son of God, Christ Jesus our Lord, our Master and our Savior.  Amen.


Let us pray…  Father God, You sent Your Son to earth to offer us salvation, so that we might be reunited with You if we only believe in Him and follow His voice.  And He lived as an example to us.  He prayed to You often, seeking Your help and guidance.  Being God Himself, Jesus would have no need to pray.  But also being Man, Jesus showed us our own need for prayer.  Father, thank You for the wonderful gift of Your Son.  Thank You for the offer of salvation He brings.  Forgive us when we try to get by without You, when we try to rely on our own resources rather than seek Your help and guidance.  Forgive us when we don’t stop long enough even to just say, “Thanks”.  Please help us, Father, to be more like Jesus in our daily walk.  Help us better understand Your will for our lives.  Help us grow closer to You in prayer.

And now, Father, please hear us as we come to you in the silence, repenting of our sin, seeking Your forgiveness and guidance, praying straight from our hearts…

Lord Jesus, throughout Your walk on earth, You set the example for how we should live our own lives.  And one of the things You did often, in both good times and bad, was to spend time in prayer with Your Father God.  As the time of Your greatest suffering approached, You prayed that You not have to go through with it.  You knew the anguish and pain You would feel when suddenly all the sin of the world would fall upon your shoulders and You would have to bear it all to the grave.  You knew that You would soon be separated from Your Father by that sin, for the first time ever, and You didn’t want to face such heartbreak.  Yet even then Lord, You knew what had to be done.  You knew that all that mattered was for God’s will, God’s plan, to be accomplished.  By Your actions, Lord, we know how important it is for us to pray.  Thank You, Jesus, for sacrificing so much just for us.  Thank You for taking all our sins and carrying them to the grave.  Forgive us, Jesus, when we just can’t let go of the world.  Forgive us when we fail to follow Your example by not going to our Father in prayer, by ignoring the needs of others, by judging them based on our own prejudices, by not loving as You love.  Help us, please Lord, to be better followers, better servants.  Help us to love sacrificially, unconditionally.  And help us to remember how important our prayer life is, to us and to God, and not just during Lent but every day of the year.  This we pray in Your righteous name, Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.