Prayer makes you think.

For instance, who was better prepared for what happened after midnight in the Garden of Gethsemane, Yeshua or his disciples? Why?

Apparently, Peter needed to go to bed with the chickens, and by the time the cock crowed three times the next morning, he’d denied Yeshua and run away. Just hours before, Peter didn’t imagine such a thing were possible.

An often-quoted proverb helps us to understand the inner process of prayer:

“As a man thinks within himself [b’nafsho], so is he…” (Pr 23:7)

“B’nafsho” is “in his soul.” The soul is defined as a bundle of appetites, emotions, desires, and intellect. The soul thinks. We don’t usually hear the beginning or the end of the proverb, though. The beginning of the proverb is:

“Do not eat the bread of a selfish man or desire his delicacies…”

The rest of the verse is:

 “…he says to you, ‘Eat and drink!’ But his heart [lev] is not with you.”

The heart is sometimes seen as the mind, interconnected with the soul. Even scientists understand there is a “heart brain” that communicates with the head brain. In context, the proverb warns us that in spite of the generous words he says, a selfish person’s silent soul and heart think the opposite and wish that you would not accept.

The connection between prayer and the proverb is that it is possible to pray one thing with the lips, yet not to really believe it or want it to come to pass. It is possible to pray one thing and think the opposite. Yeshua struggled in this like we do, yet he prayed the perfect solution in the Garden of Gethsemane:

“Nevertheless, not my will, but Yours be done.”