What Was Jesus Doing Praying?

Why would Jesus pray when He is God? People pray because they need a higher power to act on their behalf for one reason or the other. But since Jesus is God, what was He doing praying? This article aims at answering these questions.

Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed – Mark 1:35 (NKJV)

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. And when it was day, He called His disciples to Himself; and from them He chose twelve whom He also named apostles: – Luke 6:12-13 (NKJV)

Christ had reasons to pray while on earth, being a man born of a woman. One of which was to give us examples to follow for us to live victorious lives – 1 John 2:6. Secondly, being in the form of a man, He needed God, the Father, to empower and guide Him to success on earth. Thirdly, since prayer is a channel of communication between God and man, Christ fellowshipped with God in prayer. When He prayed, He prayed to God, the Father- the first personality in the trinity. 

As an example to believers

Christ’s life on earth shows us how to live a victorious life on earth. One thing that Jesus did often was praying – Luke 5:16. He taught His disciples how to pray (Luke 11:1-13) and by example stressed to them the importance of praying to God; and when He went back to heaven, His disciples followed His example and prayed often too. 

In the days of the apostles, there arose a complaint against the Hebrews by the Hellenists, because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution. The twelve apostles asked that they be exempted from serving table so they could give themselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word – Acts 6:1-4. They knew that praying was something they were not to toil with, this they obviously learnt from Christ. 

When the apostles wanted to replace Judas Iscariot that betrayed Jesus, they had to pray to God to show them who to appoint in place of Judas (Acts 1:24-25), following the footsteps of Jesus as He also prayed before choosing the twelve apostles – Luke 6:12-16. Read more...