I don’t know how to pray today

Relief of Jesus praying in the garden of suffering, Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary, Australia.

Jesus caught my eye, and then had my attention. My day was spinning, my to-do’s were growing instead of shrinking, and I was happy to be distracted from the seeming descent of our world into wars and rumors of wars. That is when Jesus caught my eye. It wasn’t flesh and blood, three-dimensional Jesus, but a photograph of a statue of Jesus from the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary in Scottsdale, AZ. It was one of my favorite reliefs from their prayer garden–Jesus interceding in the garden of his suffering. He didn’t look up from the postcard to me, but there was an unmistakable invitation to join him in prayer for the world. His ache became mine. I joined his intercession–and he joined mine. As we prayed, I was sobered by his costly love for his friends and enemies–and for my friends and enemies. Hebrews 7.25 says, “He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.”

In Christ Jesus, our intercessor, there is both pathos and passion in his prayer. He is praying now, and always for you and for the people of this world. You can join him anytime. You don’t even have to add anything, if you don’t know how to pray or what to pray. He will pray, and you can just say, “Amen.”