The Savior and Prayer

Today the Light the World invitation is “Jesus prayed for others and so can you.”  Where do we see examples of Jesus praying for others in the scriptures?  Perhaps the most famous is the great intercessory prayer that the Savior offered right before He performed the atonement.  In it He said of His disciples to the Father, “I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me… that thou shouldest keep them from the evil….  Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word. That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us” (John 17:9, 15, 20-21).  He gave a similar prayer when He was among the Nephites, saying, “And now Father, I pray unto thee for them, and also for all those who shall believe on their words, that they may believe in me, that I may be in them as thou, Father, art in me, that we may be one” (3 Nephi 19:23).  Both of these show how the Savior poured out His heart to the Father in behalf of those He loved.    

                Several other scriptures similarly show the Savior praying for others.  When the Savior was with Peter He told him, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren” (Luke 22:31-32).  I think it is telling that the Savior would pray specifically for one individual, a sign that He cares about each of us and knows us personally.  At the end of His life He prayed specifically for those who were crucifying Him: “Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).  In modern revelation we have an interesting few verses that tell us the kind of prayer that the Savior will have for us at the day of judgment if we have followed Him: “Listen to him who is the advocate with the Father, who is pleading your cause before him—Saying: Father, behold the sufferings and death of him who did no sin, in whom thou wast well pleased; behold the blood of thy Son which was shed, the blood of him whom thou gavest that thyself might be glorified; Wherefore, Father, spare these my brethren that believe on my name, that they may come unto me and have everlasting life” (D&C 45:3-5).  He will not only pray for us but plead for us.  We see that kind of pleading in His visit to the Nephites.  One the first day while with them He prayed, “Father, I am troubled because of the wickedness of the people of the house of Israel.”  The record continues, “And when he had said these words, he himself also knelt upon the earth; and behold he prayed unto the Father, and the things which he prayed cannot be written, and the multitude did bear record who heard him.”  Not only did He pray for others but His language was so powerful that the people there stated, “No one can conceive of the joy which filled our souls at the time we heard him pray for us unto the Father” (3 Nephi 17:14-15, 17).  Perhaps the most touching account of the Savior praying for others came when He took the children to Himself: “And when he had said these words, he wept, and the multitude bare record of it, and he took their little children, one by one, and blessed them, and prayed unto the Father for them” (3 Nephi 17:21).  All of these references show the great love Jesus has for us and His concerns for us that lead him to plead for blessings from the Father.  And our task is to emulate that kind of love for others that He has for us.