Pray Like Jesus In Tough TimesSample

Twenty years ago we noticed that my dad was beginning to exhibit some weakness in his limbs. Finally enjoying retirement, he tried swinging a golf club with one hand and then had to give up the game completely. He also was running short of breath. After a few months of tests, we found out why: My dad had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), otherwise known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. 

Less than five months later I returned from a several-day field trip with high school students to find out that Dad was failing. I drove the three-hour trip in record time, but was greeted in the parking lot by my brother Matt, who said, “He’s with God! He’s with God!”

My dad was a delightful man, always ready with a kind word (“You look very updated, my dear!”) or a witty pun (“The English teacher was very logical. She had a lot of comma sense.”). My mom said he joked with the nurses even on the last day. 

A nurse came into his room and said, “Did you call me, Bob?” 

He whispered, “No, I didn’t call you Bob. But what should I call you?”

Dad was a man of faith, and like Jesus, he knew his time had come. He showed people how to live with faith, and he showed people how to die with faith. 

Jesus showed us how to pray with faith in his chapter-long prayer in the Upper Room earlier in the evening before he was arrested. After acknowledging to his Father that “the time has come,” he prayed for himself in several ways:

• That as he was glorified, his Father would be glorified.

• That others would know the Father because of him.

• That he would return to the Father’s presence in their glory together.

Ultimately, prayer at its finest purpose draws us to the heart of God. It takes us into his presence and transforms us. Just as people observe that a married couple can look more like each other and behave as one unit the longer they live their lives together, this can be true for the Christian as well. When we spend more of our days praising God, thanking him, confessing sour attitudes, and interceding for others, our heart becomes more Christ-like. 

Even in our struggles, we can pray that because of those hard times, others see the work of God in us—and are drawn to the Savior we love.