This week at the CMN studio, we're finishing the audiobook Strong Men in Tough Times.
These are intense and exact audio and editing sessions that take time. We're grateful that thousands of men listen to the CMN books every month. (You can access audiobooks on Amazon.
As we near Easter, I want to alert you to a powerful teaching on prayer in this book. You can get Strong Men in Tough Times here .
One of the five types of prayer Jesus taught is the actual Lord's Prayer. And - it's not what you think. What we most often call The Lord’s Prayer was actually the prayer Jesus taught the disciples when they asked him, "How should we pray?" His answer would rightfully be called The Disciples' Prayer.
But here's the actual "Lord's Prayer" prayed by Jesus as he faced the Cross.
Jesus’ supplication in the Garden of Gethsemane was a prayer so intense it caused sweat like great drops of blood on His forehead. It is a prayer of submission, a total investment of His life in the will of God the Father. “Not my will, but thine, be done.”
The sinless Son of God was facing the most reprehensible moment of His life, being made sin for us. Tasting our death. Separation from the Father. Tested to the depths of His consecration and faith. His greatest act of faith was not in the miracles He did, but in trusting the Father to raise Him from the dead, not because He doubted the Father, but because He had never tasted death.
His prayer facing the crucifixion is a pattern for us when we are forced to face death-dealing blows like divorce, bankruptcy or criminal prosecution. Submission to the will of God does not guarantee there will be no death, but that after death, there will be a resurrection.
The greatest prayer of total covenant and sacrifice you can breathe is the same that Jesus prayed: Not my will, but your will in my life Father (Luke 22:42).
