Why did Jesus spend time praying? What are the lessons that Jesus’ prayer life teaches us? How should we pray in order to know God intimately?

Bible Gateway interviewed Tim Cameron (@timcameron8245) about his book, 40 Days Through the Prayers of Jesus: A Journey to Pray More Like Christ (Charisma House, 2017).

What’s the purpose of prayer?

Tim Cameron: I believe prayer has two great purposes. The first purpose is to change us. Prayer changes your outlook on life. It changes your desires, your loves, your compulsions, and your addictions. It changes you internally and externally (Hebrews 7:25). Through prayer we can come to God daily, and we can engage our God intimately. The closer we come to God, the more God reveals to us our need to change, and the more we’re changed by simply beholding him.

Prayer changes us so that we change things. And that’s the second purpose of prayer: to empower us to change things. It’s the very nature of prayer to deposit in us the desire to intercede for others, whether it’s praying for someone’s salvation or their needs. Every Christian is called to this wonderful ministry: the work of reconciliation—that by our words and deeds we might bring others into harmony with Christ (2 Corinthians 5:18).

Why and how do we think wrongly about prayer?

Tim Cameron: We think wrongly about prayer for a lot of reasons. Prayer is simply not a part of our natural life. “The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 4:18, NIV).

We think prayer is a way to get things. We come to the Lord with our lists, our needs, and our wants, and of course there are the catastrophic events that cast us upon him. Don’t get me wrong; I bring my lists to God daily. But few people I know come before the Lord every day, throughout the day, petitioning him to hear requests that will build his kingdom. It seems so few Christians experience the real purpose of prayer: first, intimacy with Christ, and then the power to call down the blessings of the kingdom of God into the lives of people.

Why have you formatted this book to be read in 40 days?

Tim Cameron: The number 40 is significant in the Scriptures, particularly with the life of Jesus. The number 40 is associated with new beginnings, testing, and victory in battles you would usually lose.

It rained 40 days and 40 nights during the Flood, and Noah and his family remained in the ark another 40 days while the water receded. When they were finally able to leave the ark, the world was different—new—and they were on the precipice of a new beginning.

The giant Goliath taunted the army of Israel for 40 days, morning and evening. After his legendary defeat of Goliath, David was no longer viewed as merely a shepherd; he had become a mighty warrior and man of valor, and he eventually became king of Israel.

More importantly Jesus fasted for 40 days (Luke 4:2) following the first time he prayed in public at his baptism. While lifting his hands and blessing the disciples, he ascended to heaven 40 days after his resurrection (Luke 24:50; Acts 1:3). Forty days in the prayers of Jesus can change your life.

How did Jesus view prayer?

Tim Cameron: Jesus was completely a man, but he was also completely God. As a man he had the same needs that we have: he needed divine support, strength, and blessing. The mystery here is that there was no more contradiction in his praying than there was in his drinking or eating. Both are consistent with who he was while here on this earth.

Jesus was divine, yet he was tempted just like us. He was perfect, yet he was a man. He needed to pray all night on occasions. His humanity compelled him to pray. He sought the Father’s wisdom, setting a profound example for us.

What did Jesus pray for? How did he view prayer? I believe he prayed for the Father’s will to be done in his life. I believe he viewed prayer as an absolute necessity for his life. Jesus gained such a place of intimacy with the Father through prayer that he discerned the very words the Father would have him speak and the acts the Father would have him do.

What do you mean when you say “begin all things in prayer”?

Tim Cameron: It didn’t matter if the issue at hand was profound or an everyday incident—Jesus began all things with prayer. Before setting out to preach and cast out demons throughout Galilee, he rose a great while before sunrise to pray (Mark 1:35-39). When they rolled the stone away from Lazarus’s tomb, Jesus prayed for all to hear before raising him from the dead (John 11:40-44). And as he sat at a table for dinner with two disciples on the road to Emmaus, he simply prayed (Luke 24:30-31).

Beginning all things in prayer is a foundational discipline of the Christian life. The times of praying in stillness and solitude are when God reaches into our minds, emotions, and wills; the deepest places of our souls. In the quietness of prayer we free ourselves from the constant distractions of the world and the nagging whispers of our past, dysfunctions, and sins. Beginning all things in prayer during the day and having close and continual fellowship in prayer with God will leave its mark on us.

How can that be accomplished, practically speaking?

Tim Cameron: As we discover and experience the secret place of prayer, we’ll be changed. We’ll experience the fullness of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The Holy Spirit will guide, strengthen, and correct us. He’ll intercede for us to gain a spirit of prayer in our lives. All things are possible with God (Matthew 19:26).

What’s “the secret place” of prayer?

Tim Cameron: Where do you pray? Is where you pray really that important? Evidently it is; Jesus specifically mentioned where we should and shouldn’t pray.

Where not to pray: in a location chosen so others can see you. “When you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward” (Matthew 6:5).

Where to pray: in private in your room. “But you, when you pray, enter your closet, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly” (v. 6).

There’s a great secret to prayer: pray in secret. Prayer is meant for the Father; we don’t pray to be heard by men. This is the secret place of prayer.

What does it mean to “be still”?

Tim Cameron: It means to turn off the technology and smartphone—get away from the clamor of the world—and still yourself before the Lord. Finding stillness may be one of the greatest challenges in our relationship with Christ and our prayer lives. There are two great hindrances we face every day in our search for stillness: our busy lifestyles and the constant noise of our culture. From the incessant barrage of information to the insidious advertising, our toxic culture leaves us no rest. Are you busy? Where are you on the Facebook Addiction Scale? Enough said.

As simple as it may seem, we find stillness by making a choice; deciding to sit down away from all the demands of our life and technology. God bestowed on us free will; it’s not an illusion. We’re not victims of our culture. We have control over the way we respond to everything that comes our way. It’s in stillness that we come to know our God, “Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth” (Ps. 46:10).

Unpack how the Lord’s Prayer of Matthew 6:9-13 teaches how to pray.

Tim Cameron: I love the simplicity of this prayer Christ gave to the disciples. It begins and ends with worship to our God. Sandwiched between worship, Christ instructs us to pray that His kingdom come and His will be done. This is His purpose.

Then He instructs us to pray for provision, pardon, and protection. These three things sound so simple, but they reach so deeply into our lives. Can we be satisfied with our provision for today and not compare ourselves to others? Can we really forgive others? What about that person who gossiped about you? And He ends with a great crescendo; through prayer we can be saved from temptation and delivered from evil. Wow, we need to pray this prayer!

What is a favorite Bible passage of yours and why?

Tim Cameron: Isaiah 50:4, “The Lord God has given me the tongue of the learned, that I may know how to sustain him who is weary with a word; He awakens me morning by morning; He awakens my ear to listen as the learned.” I love this verse. It is one of the many “snapshots” of Jesus we find in Isaiah. The verse speaks at so many levels to our hope in the Lord, His plans for us, and how those purposes are accomplished.

Our God does for us the things we cannot do. He wraps us in garments of salvation and righteousness (Is. 61:10). God’s plan for us is to boldly deliver the good news to those who do not know this great salvation through Jesus. It is sobering and enthralling at the same time to speak a “word” from God’s heart to a person.

It is the greatest delight of my soul to meet the Lord each morning in the secret place and learn from Him. This is where He awakens my spirit to drink deeply of the Spirit. This is where He teaches me walk after the Spirit.

What are your thoughts about Bible Gateway and the Bible Gateway App?

Tim Cameron: What a marvelous resource. Honestly, I never thought I would make the transition from my two-and-a-half-inch thick Bible to a smartphone Bible app. However, when the pastor says turn to…I pull out my phone and open the Bible Gateway App. I’m an inveterate user. I love the voice function for road trips.

Bio: Tim Cameron is a passionate follower of Jesus. He’s a graduate of Oral Roberts University (ORU), where he earned a bachelor’s degree in education and was a Division 1 basketball player. After Cameron earned a master’s degree in teaching arts from the University of Tulsa, he served ORU as a director of admissions and financial aid. He later worked as a senior high principal in public schools, then became headmaster at Metro Christian Academy, one of the largest private schools in Oklahoma. Today he gives himself to the Word and intercession. A speaker and the author of The Forty-Day Word Fast: A Spiritual Journey to Eliminate Toxic Words From Your Life, he serves in prayer ministry and as an elder at Believers Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

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