Jesus prayed often and made prayer a habit. He withdrew to private places, rose well before dawn to pray, and prayed all night before significant decisions such as choosing the Twelve. Those who say they abide in Him ought to walk as He walked, so His example sets the pattern for His followers. He told His disciples to pray always and, on His final Passover, urged them to ask the Father in His name, giving them the same direct access to the Father that He Himself had. When they asked Him how to pray, He rejected both the hypocritical public prayers of the Pharisees and the vain repetitions of rote prayer, since God is a real Person who desires a real relationship. He taught them to pray privately, reverently, and sincerely. His model prayer, often mistakenly called the Lord's Prayer (the real one is in John 17), is an outline for far longer, deeper, and more personal prayers, not a text to recite mindlessly. It begins and ends with praise and honor of the Father, acknowledging His holiness and power. It then turns to the Kingdom of God, the goal of God and of every Christian. In the middle it places personal needs: daily bread, forgiveness, and help against trials and Satan. It does not cover every situation, but it sets the priorities: God Himself, His Kingdom, and doing His will.

Jesus Christ kept close personal contact with His Father, and as a result His life was filled with love, faith, and power from God. His frequent and fervent prayers made possible His victory and that of others over sin and death. As a human He affirmed, "I can of myself do nothing," so the power of prayer comes from doing the Father's will and praying according to it. In the moment of His greatest agony and crisis He prayed, "Your will be done," an example for all. Jesus came to reveal the Father and always addressed the Father in prayer, a Father-child relationship open to all believers. When a disciple asked Him to teach them to pray, He gave the outline in Matthew 6 and Luke 11. It is not a prayer to be memorized and repeated, since He had just forbidden vain repetition. It begins with praise and reverence for the Father's name, then asks for the coming of the Kingdom, God's will, daily bread, forgiveness as we forgive others, and deliverance from temptation and the evil one. It closes with "amen," affirming that we mean it. Requests are made in Jesus' name, meaning with His authority and in accord with His will. As spiritual intercessor, He is the one to whom believers owe their lives.

Jesus Christ offered up prayers and supplications with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death. This occurred in the days of His flesh. Commentators believe this refers to the time when Christ was in the garden and was distressed and sorrowful. These times that speak of Christ weeping and His tears occur within the last few weeks of His life. In Luke and Hebrews a better translation of the word weeping is to wail or cry out. Christ wept over the unbelief of people that He was close to. In the garden He weeps and cries for all humanity which He loved.

Jesus Christ intercedes for His people as the ultimate High Priest whose prayers arise from His intimate relationship with the Father and from the complete fulfillment of His redemptive duty. In the prayer recorded in John 17 He first petitions the Father to glorify Him so that He may glorify the Father and bestow eternal life on those given to Him. He then prays specifically for His disciples, acknowledging that they belong to the Father, have received His word, and are not of the world, and He asks the Father to keep them in His name so that they may be one as the Father and the Son are one. Extending the same intercession to future believers, He requests that they also may be one in the Father and the Son, that the world may believe the Father sent Him, and that they may behold His glory and experience the divine love that has existed from before the foundation of the world. These petitions emphasize sanctification by the truth, protection from the evil one, and the unity that reflects the eternal bond between Father and Son. After His resurrection and ascension Jesus continues this ministry at the right hand of God, where He always lives to make intercession for those who come to God through Him. His advocacy rests on the once-for-all sacrifice by which He bore the sins of many and obtained eternal redemption. Through this perpetual intercession the prayers and praises of believers become acceptable to the Father, and the church, as a royal priesthood, is enabled and obligated to imitate Christ by offering intercession for one another and for all people. The same Spirit who helps believers in their weakness conveys their petitions according to the will of God, guaranteeing that the intercessory work of Jesus Christ remains effective, righteous, and perpetual until His enemies are made His footstool.

Jesus' prayer in John 17:9, "I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me," was given specifically for His disciples and for a specific reason. It was not the time to pray for anyone else, but this does not mean He never prayed for anyone but a disciple. His life shows concern for people outside His following. As He walked up to Jerusalem, He thought not of His own coming suffering but of His countrymen, longing to gather Jerusalem's children as a hen gathers her brood. Most of those He prayed for and healed were probably unconverted worldly sinners, not members of the church. On the stake He practiced what He taught, praying, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do" (Luke 23:34). He also commanded His followers to pray for enemies and persecutors, and He said that doing so marks them as sons of the Father, who sends sun and rain on the evil and the good (Matthew 5:44-45). Jesus lived among ordinary people without sharing in the world's evils, so His example makes praying for the world's people right.