Thinking Aloud

Why did Jesus have to pray? What was the reason for Him to pray, while He was God Himself? Who did He pray to? Did He pray to Himself? These and many other related questions have bothered eminent theologians over the course of church history. Most believers would have at some point wondered about this. I believe this question can be answered simply by considering the following principles: 1. At His human incarnation Jesus was 100%  a man as if He were not God. As the perfect Man who ever lived, He had to pray to the Father God.  2. As He did in all other walks of life, He set an example for us to emulate, by praying. e.g. He prayed on the cross for those who were crucifying Him as He had taught us to pray for our enemies. See Matthew 5:44-50.  3. As the Perfect Son of the Perfect Father, co-existant and co-equal to God, He had to continue His pre-incarnate practice by relating to the Father in every step of His ministry on the earth . The Gospels tell us that Jesus habitu...

  Jacob's Ladder is one of the fascinating episodes we witness in the Bible. Jacob, the Biblical patriarch and the second son of Isaac didn't start his life as a saint. His very name meant 'trickster'.  Our story starts at a point when he was fleeing from home after deceiving his father  and stealing his brother's birthright from him.   That night, as he was sleeping with a stone under his head, at the middle of nowhere,  he had a strange dream. He saw a ladder that was placed on the earth with its top reaching to heaven and angels of God ascending and descending on it. (Genesis 21:12). He saw God standing above it and making this momentous statement: "I am the Lord, the God of Abraham and Isaac. I will give to you and to your descendants this land on which you are lying. They will be as numerous as the specks of dust on the earth. They will extend their territory in all directions, and through you and your descendants I will bless all the nations" (Gene...

  O Lord, our Lord,     your greatness is seen in all the world! Your praise reaches up to the heavens;  it is sung by children and babies.  (Psalm 8:1-2) THE HEBREWS OF BIBLICAL TIMES REGARDED the presence of children in the family as a mark of Divine favor and greatly to be desired. Psalms 127:3 says "Children are a gift from the Lord;  they are a real blessing".   If a wife proved childless, other wife or wives would be added to the family.  If a man died childless his brother had to  marry his widow, the children of such union being considered the dead brother's.   The gift of a son from Yahweh was the height of joy; the loss of a child marked the depth of woe.   When God informed Abraham He will bless him abundantly and he will become a great nation, Abraham asked Him petulantly  what good was this blessing, as long as  he remained childless! Rachel was angry as she had no children and blamed Jac...