Here Jesus is talking to Peter.



The word translated as "prayed" as per Strong's is pretty interesting.



Jesus said that he begged, as in binding Himself, so that Peter's faith might not fail. This kind of intrigued me as I had never understood to "beg" something of someone as somehow being something that is somehow binding on the person doing the asking.

I found, in one of the multiple online dictionary applications I have installed on my laptop the following definition of beg.



This definition comes from the The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48. It makes a lot clearer, to me, the "binding oneself" part of begging.

Don't know if anyone else will be interested in it, but I was.

There is something in this verse that I think is the key to answered prayer. In the words Jesus used in speaking to Peter we see why His prayers were always answered. It is that His prayers were always said with the attitude of "binding Himself" to His Father through submission to His Father's will. He always deferred to His Father so His Father always did what He asked, for what He asked was always in agreement with His Father's will for Jesus bound Himself to it at all times and in all ways.

Interesting thought!

Yes, Jesus prayers were answered for He fully bound Himself to the Father's will. He is our example on how to live the Christian life!
When praying in accord with Christ's will our prayers, too, will be answered.


On another line of thought -- it is interesting how the word #1189 "deomai" is used in other texts.

Translated as pray (12x), beseech or besought (9x), make request (1x).

Luke 21:36 "Watch ye therefore, and pray G1189 always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man."

That text is very meaningful when coupled with the concept of binding ourselves to Christ's will.

Also Acts 4:31 "And when they had prayed, G1189 the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness."


But what about these texts?

Luke 8:28 has the demons talking:
"When he saw Jesus, he cried out, and fell down before him, and with a loud voice said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God most high? I beseech G1189 thee, torment me not.

Is this demon binding himself?

In a certain sense he is. He is submitting, no matter how unwillingly, to the power of God, in that he knows he must leave the demoniac. He is just looking for a way in which he thinks he can cause further mischief to the cause of God. God used that desire to cause further mischief to further His own cause though for it drew the attention of everyone in the area to Jesus, and when He came back to the area later He was received gladly and openly.

The idea of submission is still there. It is just done very unwillingly whereas Jesus' submission to His Father's will was done without reservation and done willingly. His was a positive submission. The devil's submission was in a negative sense.

It is interesting to note, on what I bolded above, that Ellen White tells us that the honor of all three members of the Godhead is at stake in the removal of sin from our lives. So, when we pray for God to remove sin from us we can know without a single doubt that we are praying in accordance with the will of God for us.

It is our unbelief that shackles us to sin, not the lack of power on God's part. We often just plain old doubt the power of God to remove sin from who we are. The fruit of the Spirit is against NO law, so if we have the fruit of the Spirit in our lives we will be keeping God's law. No doubt about it. It is just really difficult for us to visualize because the only paradigm we have ever known is that of sin.

Especially notice the last two sentences of this paragraph from Desire of Ages p. 665. Jesus had no qualities and exercised no power that we cannot have if we will be in submission to the Father as Jesus was.

So why are we not like Jesus? Why do we sin? Why do we not have the same spiritual power He did? Because we do not fully surrender self like Jesus did.

I have often wondered certain things about prayer, and this quote has served to remind me of some of that. i have reached the conclusion there is no such thing as "unanswered prayer." As in opposed to "answered prayer." All sincere prayer is answered. Sometimes the answer is silence. Sometimes, it is no. Sometimes it is yes. other times it is maybe; and yet, other times, the answer may depend upon certain conditions/goals being met first. Does that make sense?

As humans, we would have difficulty, always 'asking for God's will" in prayer, because we do not always see the issue as God does. I believe Jesus, in His humanity, reflected this well when He prayed: Father, let this cup be taken..." Jesus must have known, atleast in his divinity, that that was not going to be God's will?

All this just makes me conclude that even if we dont quite get the wording or the ideas right, when we pray; He listens. And He answers.

I agree. This is a very interesting point to examine. May I ask, what made you think of this?