Pray to God

How and when do you pray? "In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety" (Heb 5:7). "During the day He was teaching in the temple, but at evening He would go out and spend the night on the mount that is called Olivet" (Lk 21:37). He did so "as was His custom . . . and the disciples also followed Him" (22:39). Furthermore, "Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness to pray" (5:16). Jesus "knelt down and began to pray . . . [and then] rose from prayer" (22:41,45). "In the early morning, while "it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there" (Mk 1:35). "After He had sent the crowds away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray; and when it was evening, He was there alone" (Mt 14:23). "He spent the whole night in prayer to God" (Lk 6:12).

It didn't require Jesus to be in isolation to pray. Once "He took Peter and John and James, and went up to the mountain to pray" (9:28). "Praying alone, the disciples were with Him" (:18). But for a little privacy He said, "'Sit here while I go over there and pray'" (Mt 26:36). Jesus asked them to keep watch while he prayed, but when he returned, he found them asleep (Mt 26:38,45). He warned them to "keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation'" (:41). Prayer has its part in survival. He told them to pray so they would "'have strength to escape all these things that are about to take place'" (Lk 21:36).