Jordan Chamblee
AFA Journal staff writer
May 2018 – Prayer is the bread and butter of walking with the Lord. When you pray in the right way, you bring your heart and mind in line with Jesus in the highest form of worship and communion. Private prayer is a time of self-examination. It is grasping tightly the promises of God and presenting your petitions to Him as a child does to his or her parents.
What is the right way to pray? Consider how the Son of God Himself prayed.
Jesus prayed for the church
“I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours” (John 17:9).
The church is the fellowship of your brothers and sisters, the body of Christ. Following the pattern of Jesus, you are to lay aside your own needs and lift up the needs of the church. The church isn’t perfect, but it is being perfected. “For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified” (Hebrews 10:14). Pray that the church will grow in Christlikeness and rely on Jesus for all things. Pray that the church will love those who persecute Christians. Pray that the church will compassionately and faithfully preach the gospel to dying sinners.
Jesus prayed for the unrepentant
“Then Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do’” (Luke 23:34).
Everywhere you go, you will meet men and women who refuse to turn to Jesus. Pray that they would come to the end of themselves and not be deceived by the greatest lie of this world: that Jesus is not worth following. Live out Jesus and the gospel before them. Do not let the things you say and do confuse the message of the gospel. Love them as Jesus loves them.
Jesus prayed for individual Christians
“And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1b).
If you are faithfully attending Christian fellowship, individuals who have unique walks with Christ surround you. Pray for all whom God lays on your heart by name, and follow your prayers with actions on their behalf when action is needed. Pray that each one will walk with the Lord closely. Pray that hearts will be warmed by the gospel and in turn go out into their circles overflowing with the grace and love of Jesus.
Jesus prayed that God would be glorified
“Father, glorify Your name. Then a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘I have both glorified it and will glorify it again’” (John 12:28).
The life you are living is on loan to you. It came from God, and everything you do between your birth and death should be an act of worship to Him. Pray that God would do His will in your life, that your heart would be soft and compliant to His direction and His Word.
Jesus prayed for Himself
“And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was” (John 17:5).
This goes hand in hand with praying for God the Father’s glory. For Jesus to be glorified is your greatest good, because if He is glorified, you are glorified (Ephesians 2:5-6). Pray that the glory of Jesus would overflow the doors of churches and flood the streets, that sinners would see Him and be drawn by His irresistible grace and beauty. 
