Our Lord's prayers, like all his acts and teachings, are models of unselfishness. Therefore, before we ask anything of the Father, one question should be carefully considered. – Why do I want this? If the petitioner is consecrated and desires the healing of any that are sick, it should not be for his own glory, nor for his own comfort, nor in any manner for himself; for such requests are selfish and out of harmony with his covenant of sacrifice – "even unto death." Remember the course of our Lord and the apostles. Our Lord used divine power in feeding the multitude because of their necessity, and to glorify the Father; but when he himself was forty days without food he would not use the same power to feed himself, by commanding the stones to become bread, because this would have been contrary to his mission; for he came not to serve himself but others: not to preserve his own life, but to sacrifice it, to lay it down in the service of others. He created food for the multitudes, but not for himself or the disciples, though he referred to the miracle as an evidence that if ever necessary the same power would create bread for them. But it seems to have been the Father's plan to provide for his people by natural means, for there is no record of necessity for such a miracle on their behalf. Doubtless the Lord and his disciples partook of the bread and fish after they were made, and probably of the remaining fragments, but note that the object of their creation was the relief of the multitude and not their own refreshment. (Matt. 15:32; 16:5-12.) He healed the lame and the palsied miraculously when it would glorify God, but when he himself was weary, he "sat on the well" to rest, or used other natural means. Though he prayed often to the Father, and knew that he was heard always, and although sometimes heavy and sorrowful, as in Gethsemane, yet his prayers were requests for grace and strength to do the Father's will, and to finish the work he had come to do. And though he tells us that by asking he could have had "twelve legions of angels" to protect his person and his life, yet he would not ask – preferring to have the Father's will accomplished, which he had come to perform; namely, to give himself a "ransom for all." So notable was this a characteristic of his, that even his enemies noticed it, and said, "He saved others [from sickness, etc.], himself he cannot save." They could not appreciate the self-sacrifice which he was performing. And so, too, we may reasonably expect that many nominal Christians today will not understand the same motives and conduct in those who prefer to share in Christ's sufferings, to join with him in sacrifice, in order that they may share also in his coming glorious work of blessing and restoring "that which was lost."
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