ary—Communing With God
Jesus, Our Pattern, Depended on Prayer
Who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications,
with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was
heard because of His godly fear. Hebrews 5:7, NKJV.
Evening is drawing on as Jesus calls to His side three of His disciples, Peter, James, and
John, and leads them across the fields, and far up a rugged path, to a lonely mountainside....
The light of the setting sun still lingers on the mountaintop, and gilds with its fading
glory the path they are traveling. But soon the light dies out from hill as well as valley,
the sun disappears behind the western horizon, and the solitary travelers are wrapped in the
darkness of night....
Presently Christ tells them that they are now to go no farther. Stepping a little aside
from them, the Man of Sorrows pours out His supplications with strong crying and tears.
He prays for strength to endure the test in behalf of humanity. He must Himself gain a fresh
hold on Omnipotence, for only thus can He contemplate the future. And He pours out His
heart longings for His disciples, that in the hour of the power of darkness their faith may
not fail....
At first the disciples unite their prayers with His in sincere devotion; but after a time
they are overcome with weariness, and, even while trying to retain their interest in the
scene, they fall asleep. Jesus has told them of His sufferings; He has taken them with Him
that they might unite with Him in prayer; even now He is praying for them. The Savior has
seen the gloom of His disciples, and has longed to lighten their grief by an assurance that
their faith has not been in vain.... Now the burden of His prayer is that they may be given a
manifestation of the glory He had with the Father before the world was, that His kingdom
may be revealed to human eyes, and that His disciples may be strengthened to behold it.
He pleads that they may witness a manifestation of His divinity that will comfort them in
the hour of His supreme agony with the knowledge that He is of a surety the Son of God
and that His shameful death is a part of the plan of redemption.
His prayer is heard. While He is bowed in lowliness upon the stony ground, suddenly
the heavens open, the golden gates of the City of God are thrown wide, and holy radiance
descends upon the mount, enshrouding the Savior’s form. Divinity from within flashes
through humanity, and meets the glory coming from above. Arising from His prostrate
position, Christ stands in godlike majesty. The soul agony is gone. His countenance
now shines “as the sun,” and His garments are “white as the light.”—The Desire of Ages,
419-421.
8
Christ’s Example Gives Power to Resist
Temptation
It came to pass that Jesus also was baptized; and while He prayed, the heaven was
opened. And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and
a voice came from heaven which said, “You are My beloved Son; in You I am well
pleased.” Luke 3:21, 22, NKJV.
Christ’s professed followers may be strong in the Lord if they avail themselves of the
provisions made for them through the merits of Jesus. God has not closed the heavens
against the humble prayers of repenting, humble, believing souls. The humble, simple,
earnest, persevering prayer of the faithful one will now penetrate heaven, as surely as did
the prayer of Christ [when He was baptized]. Heaven opened to His prayer, and this shows
us that we may be reconciled to God, and that communication is established between God
and us through the righteousness of our Lord and Savior. Christ took upon Him humanity,
and yet He was in close, intimate relationship with God. He linked humanity with His
divine nature, making it possible for us also to become partakers of the divine nature, and
thus escape the corruption that is in the world through lust.
Christ is our example in all things. In response to His prayer to His Father, heaven
was opened, and the Spirit descended like a dove and abode upon Him. The Holy Spirit of
God is to communicate with men and women and to abide in the hearts of the obedient and
faithful. Light and strength will come to those who earnestly seek it in order that they may
have wisdom to resist Satan, and to overcome in times of temptation. We are to overcome
even as Christ overcame.
Jesus opened His public mission with fervent prayer, and His example makes manifest
the fact that prayer is necessary in order to lead a successful Christian life. He was
constantly in communion with His Father, and His life presents to us a perfect pattern
which we are to imitate....
We are dependent upon God for success in living the Christian life, and Christ’s
example opens before us the path by which we may come to a never-failing source of
strength, from which we may draw grace and power to resist the enemy and to come off
victorious.—The Signs of the Times, July 24, 1893.
9
Approaching God With Reverence
He said to them, “When you pray, say: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your
name. Your kingdom come.” Luke 11:2, NKJV.
To hallow the name of the Lord requires that the words in which we speak of the
Supreme Being be uttered with reverence. “Holy and reverend is his name” (Psalm 111:9).
We are never in any manner to treat lightly the titles or appellations of the Deity. In prayer
we enter the audience chamber of the Most High; and we should come before Him with
holy awe. The angels veil their faces in His presence. The cherubim and the bright and
holy seraphim approach His throne with solemn reverence. How much more should we,
finite, sinful beings, come in a reverent manner before the Lord, our Maker!
But to hallow the name of the Lord means much more than this. We may, like the Jews
in Christ’s day, manifest the greatest outward reverence for God, and yet profane His name
continually. “The name of the Lord” is “merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant
in goodness and truth ... forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin” (Exodus 34:5-7). Of
the church of Christ it is written, “This is the name wherewith she shall be called, The Lord
our Righteousness” (Jeremiah 33:16). This name is put upon every follower of Christ. It
is the heritage of the child of God. The family are called after the Father. The prophet
Jeremiah, in the time of Israel’s sore distress and tribulation, prayed, “We are called by thy
name; leave us not” (Jeremiah 14:9).
This name is hallowed by the angels of heaven, by the inhabitants of unfallen worlds.
When you pray, “Hallowed be thy name,” you ask that it may be hallowed in this world,
hallowed in you. God has acknowledged you before men and angels as His child; pray that
you may do no dishonor to the “worthy name by the which ye are called” (James 2:7). God
sends you into the world as His representative. In every act of life you are to make manifest
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the name of God. This petition calls upon you to possess His character. You cannot hallow
His name, you cannot represent Him to the world, unless in life and character you represent

the very life and character of God. This you can do only through the acceptance