Does Your Prayer Life Look Like Christ's?

How to pray like Jesus pt. 2

Jesus isn’t just our savior—he’s our model too.

As the only person in history who lived a perfectly complete life, he alone knew life in perfect, glorious abundance. Jesus lived free from the pain of regret and the worries of tomorrow. He never backed down from doing what was right and never spoke a false word to his neighbor. And in the face of intense opposition and suffering, he endured to the point of death for the sake of the ones he loved.

So if we want to learn how to truly live—how to flourish—we need not look further than Christ.

But how did he do it? What can we learn from him? What was the source of his strength?

The answer is simple.

An unrelenting dependence on his Father

“Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing.” (John 5:19-20)

Everything Jesus did flowed from the communion he possessed with his father. All of his works stemmed from the Father’s love and direction. He was in a constant feedback loop with God the Father, working in unison, weaving their common work of redemption together.

Jesus didn’t take on human flesh to live in unrestrained independence. He came to accomplish the work of redemption, defeat Satan, and gather his sheep, inaugurating the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.

And the whole time he did this work in an unrelenting dependence and communion with God the Father. As he said, “I and the Father are one.” (John 10:30).

A constant abiding in his Father

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.” (John 15: 9-10)

Jesus is clear. He bore fruit by abiding in the Father’s love.

Jesus was continually held in his Father’s love. He never departed from it or was without it. His Father’s love pulsated through his being, energizing his redemptive work.

No doubt, this is why we read about him departing for solitary times of prayer in the gospel stories. Over and over again he went away from the crowds and his disciples. He was filling himself up with the Father’s love, renewing and replenishing his strength. Planting his roots deeper and deeper into the vast repositories of an infinite God.

And what was the fruit of this practice?

Nothing short of the redemption and renewal of all things.

The good news for us

Living this way isn’t just for Jesus—it’s for us too.

And the good news is that Jesus isn’t only our model for prayer but our means of prayer.

Through his saving work, Jesus invites us into the eternal love of the Father. He doesn’t hoard this affection but shares it with us. He pours out his Spirit into our hearts so we can cry out, “Abba, Father!” to our God (Galatians 4:6).

Now we can cry out to God the Father, abide in his love, and know his abundance. Nothing can separate us from his love and no failure can run his perfect patience dry. Even when we struggle to pray or don’t even know how, “the Spirit helps us in our weakness” (Romans 8:26).

Christian, take heart and follow Jesus into the abiding love of God.