What did Jesus pray for during His prayer times with the Father?

After morning watch today, the Lord brought this question to my mind so much so that I had to look up the scriptures to satisfy my curiosity.

"Have you ever wondered what My Son prayed for during His quiet time with Me?" Father God seem to be asking me this question (At that moment, Ps was praying about the Father's heart.....and it really felt like God the Father was asking me this question directly).

"I don't know" was my reply. 

Indeed what possibly can Jesus pray for during His prayer times especially when He spent so many hours alone in prayer. Did Jesus pray for Himself during those hours?

I do know that I pray much for my work problems when I am praying alone. "Is this wrong Father? Should I be focussing on nations and world issues?" 

I felt kind of guilty as my prayer focus seem to be so much on myself (especially if I pray alone by myself, the tendency is to veer towards the 'me' prayers).

Firstly, I researched the hours that Jesus spent in prayer and found that they were long hours indeed -

When and how long did Jesus pray?

1. Jesus prayed all night. 

Luke 6:12 "Now it came to pass in those days that He went to the mountain to pray and continued all night in prayer before God"

2. Jesus prayed in the wilderness alone

Luke 5:16 "He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed"

3. Jesus prayed from morning/afternoon till evening

Matthew 14:23 "And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there"

4. Jesus prayed early in the morning before dawn

Mark 1:35 "Now in the morning having risen a long while before daylight, He went up and departed to a solitary place and there He prayed"

Secondly I researched what Jesus prayed for in those long hours spent with the Father

It would make sense for Jesus to pray the pattern of the Lord's Prayer during those times alone with the Father. After all, when the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, He taught them the Lord's Prayer:

"Our Father in heaven
Hallowed be Your name.
Your Kingdom come
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven
Give us this day our daily bread
and forgive us our debts
as we forgive our debtors
And lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen" 
Matthew 6:9-13

Could it be that Jesus used this same similar pattern in His prayer time with His Father?

The pattern of the Lord's Prayer is structured in the following manner:

1. Begin always with praise and worship - 
"Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Your name". 

The focus is on the holiness and the greatness of God. The name of God the Father is greatly hallowed in praise and worship. During corporate prayer, we spend at least half and hour worshipping God before we start. During morning watches we worship for half an hour at least. 

In my own devotion time, I like to listen to worship songs on Youtube especially those sung by Don Moen (long play).

Why begin with worship? Because worship brings us to focus on God. Because worship takes away the emphasis on ourselves. Because worship helps us break the idolatry of SELF!

Remember Isaiah when he cried out to God on the day the King Uzziah died. He suddenly saw the holiness of God.

I really need to see the holiness and beauty of the Lord before I start praying daily whether on my own or in the morning watches.

2. Declare and affirm the superiority of the Word of God - "Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven"

To declare "Your kingdom come, Your will be done" speaks to me about declaration and affirmation of God's Word. Perhaps we should pause at this juncture to begin reading the Word of God after saturating in praise and worship.

The Word of God reveals the will of God - "Your kingdom come, Your will be done".

Romans 12:2 "And do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God"

In order to know the will of God, I really need to know the Word of God. This is an important aspect of the Lord's Prayer.

To pray that God's kingdom come on us on earth as it is heaven is to ask God to work out His purposes on earth in all areas of our lives which purposes are already written in heaven.

Very often when I read the Word, I will begin praying the Word for myself in that particular situation I am facing.

One day I was reading Luke 1:37 and meditating on all things are possible with God. I prayed this for my work situation that all the difficulties I face in work will be resolved with God's help.

Sitting at my office desk, it suddenly dawned upon me that the assignments which I thought was really tough was actually quite easy. I overcame the mental block of "impossibility" by praying Luke 1:37 for myself.

What a comfort, what a joy!

What is God's will and purpose for us on earth? To be like Jesus and to glorify Him! How do we become like Jesus? We become like Him when we allow ourselves to be washed by the 'water' of the Word.

3. Pray for ourselves - "Give us this day our daily bread". 

After worship and reading God's Word, we can then start our prayers with praying for our daily needs. 

I pray often in this area bringing before God all my work assignments, my fears of making mistakes in my work, my fears of missing deadlines, my frustration in dealing with my boss, my children whose behavior sometimes trouble and vex me and so on and so forth. 

I am comforted that Jesus also prayed for Himself. In John 17 (the high priestly prayer of the Jesus), it is noted that the Lord asked the Father to glorify Him so that He in turn may glorify the Father.

John 17:1 "Father, the hour has come. Glorify the Son that Your Son may glorify You"

At Gethsemene, Jesus prayed hard for strength to endure the suffering ahead. Jesus prayed often prayed for Himself asking Father God for grace to go to the Cross. 

4. Pray for forgiveness for ourselves and for others - "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors"

"Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors" - this prayer is important because Jesus said that if we don't forgive others, Father God will not be able to forgive us.

Mark 11:25 "And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses"

Luke 6:28 "Bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you"

We need to ask God to forgive us, our sins and trespasses. At the same time, just release forgiveness to all who may have hurt us in some way or another. This part of the Lord's prayer is on our personal cleansing.

5. Pray to overcome temptation - "And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one".

In fact this is one prayer point that Jesus emphasized strongly in the Gospels.

Luke 22:32 "But I have prayed for you (Peter) that your faith should not fail and when you have returned to Me, strengthen the brethren"

Luke 22:4 "Pray that you may not enter into temptation"

Jesus prayed for His disciples that they will not be led into temptation. To put it in simple language, He prayed that they will not betray Him when He go the Cross.

Again this is mentioned also in Jesus prayer to the Father in John 17:15 "I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one" - a prayer for strength to overcome the devil.

What is this "temptation" that is so important to the Lord that He has to put it as part of the Lord's prayer? 

I believe it is the temptation to give in to the works of the flesh, it is the temptation to deny the Lord in critical times, it is the temptation to become like the people of this world whose values are values which are contrary to the Cross.

I believe it is the temptation of choosing to walk the wide and easy path that leads to death. It is the temptation of back-sliding and having our hearts grow cold. I believe that it is the temptation to bow down to the idols of self, pride, mammon, complacency, addiction and all the works of the flesh.

For the believers in Syria and Iraq who were martyred for their faith, I believe that their temptation at the moment of death was the temptation to deny the Lord Jesus Christ.

Each one of us will face different kind of temptations each day. For me my temptation is to curse my boss for her harsh words to me when reviewing my work. Often times, her words hurt me so much that I feel so tempted to throw in the towel. At one time after two awful sessions of being besieged by very harsh and critical words that cut to the spirit, she suddenly fell sick. Her sickness actually was a growth on the nose that expanded across the mouth area bringing about the inability to talk.

Fearing that I may have cursed her in anyway in my prayers I repented of being angry and upset with her and prayed for her healing. I asked God to forgive me as I have forgiven her! As it turned out, she was hospitalized for a week but eventually got well. Praise God.

We really need to ask God for strength to endure all kinds of fleshly temptations and to resist it.

6. End with praying for others - "For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory. Amen"

To me this last part of the Lord's prayer is to pray for God to expand His kingdom in my life as well as in the life of others. 

After praise and worship, reading the Word, declaring the Word, asking for my daily needs, cleansing and protection from evil - it seems just right to enter into intercession for others. 

The intercession is to focus on God's divine expansion of His kingdom purpose and kingdom power in the lives of others/in situations that we are facing or our nation is facing. The ultimate purpose is for God to manifest His glory and His power so that those who do not know Him will see Jesus in us and through us! 

In fact this is the best time to take out the prayer booklet and pray the prayer focus which is centered on others rather than ourselves. Every prayer item in the prayer booklet is praying for the expansion of God's kingdom in lives of others!

Consider this amazing fact for a while, the Lord's Prayer does seem like the hour that changes the world! If 10 minutes is spent practising each point of the Lord's Prayer, the 6 points as set out above will translate into 60 minutes which is equivalent to one hour!

7. Pray for laborers for the harvest - although not in the Lord's Prayer yet this prayer point is important as this was specially mentioned by Jesus in Luke 10:2 "Pray the Lord of the harvest to send our laborers into the harvest".

8. Prayer for our disciples - Jesus prayed for His disciples in John 17. I can hear His heart beating for His disciples, how deep is His love for them, how great is His desire for them to stay strong in their faith. 

John 17:9 "I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours"

John 17:20 "I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word"

Luke 22:32 gives me some idea that Jesus often spend time in praying to the Father for His disciples. Actually not only in praying for His current disciples but also future disciples. I believe that this is what the Lord wants us to do...to pray for our children (our closest disciples) and those whom we are leading.

I pause for a while to meditate on this. The truth hit me like lightning.....JESUS ACTUALLY PRAYED FOR ME IN JOHN 17! 

After all I am one of those who have believed in Him through the word of other disciples before me!

See how He loves and cares for us!

Are there other prayer items? I believe there are because Jesus told His disciples to ask anything in His name and He will do it!

Thus although we are given some important prayer points that the Lord Himself deem fit to keep on repeating, there are other prayer requests left for us to utter so that our prayers will not be in a formula-like fashion (although some structure seem to be profitable) but all prayers should flow from the heart.