To Be Like Jesus Prayer
a prayer for God to help us grow in Christlikeness, which is the goal of our spiritual growth
Prayer was inspired and adapted from teaching on "the components of the self," by Dallas Willard
"...'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind', and 'love your neighbor as yourself.'" - Luke 10:27 NIV
“The Distinguishing mark of Christian discipleship is a transformed heart, transformed affections. When someone becomes a true disciple, Christ radically changes the person’s appetite.” - Eric Geiger, Michael Kelley, & Philip Nation
"Discipleship is about bringing all areas of our lives under the Lordship of Jesus by the power of the Spirit through the Good News." - Seth McBee
Heart
Our choices and decisions reflect Jesus's view of the world.
SAMPLE PRAYER: Jesus, cause me to choose and make decisions in the way You choose and make decisions. I want to align myself with You and be inclined to do Your will!
"Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God." - Colossians 3:1,3 NIV
"...Choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." - Joshua 24:15b ESV
"I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance." - Ephesians 1:18 NLT
"For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him." - Philippians 2:13 NLT
Mind
We see people and situations as Jesus would.
SAMPLE PRAYER: Jesus, I want to think in the way You think. I want to have Your thoughts in all situations!
"Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." - Philippians 4:8 NIV
"We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." 2 Corinthians 10:5 NIV
"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." - Ephesians 3:20 ESV
"Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God." - Colossians 3:2-3 NIV
"'Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?' But we have the mind of Christ." 1 Corinthians 2:16 NIV
Body
Our actions, reactions, interactions, and activities are like Jesus'.
SAMPLE PRAYER: Jesus, I want do what You do. Grow my self-control and self-discipline for all things, including in making ample time and space to be with You. Help me to focus on You and on becoming a yielded vessel You can use for Your glory. I want to do the works of Jesus in the way you would do them!
"And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." - Colossians 3:17 NIV
"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving." - Colossians 3:23-24 NIV
"For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline." - 2 Timothy 1:7 NIV
"For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say 'No' to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age." - Titus 2:11-12 NIV
"So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing. I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified." - 1 Corinthians 9:26-27 NLT
"My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry." - James 1:19 NIV
"For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure." - Philippians 2:13 ESV
Feelings
Our emotions, feelings, and longings are shaped by the affection of Jesus.
SAMPLE PRAYER: Jesus, I want to love what You love and hate what You hate. Cause me to feel what You feel. I want to have Your passionate emotions and longings. And let my emotional inclination be to do Your will.
"Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good." - Romans 12:9 ESV
"Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light." - Ephesians 5:11-13 NIV
"For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus." - Philippians 1:8 ESV
"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." - Romans 15:13 NIV
Social Contexts
Our relationships and the ways we relate to all people reflect His view of people and how He would treat them.
SAMPLE PRAYER: Jesus, teach me to relate to all people in the way You would relate to them. I want to treat people with Your loyal, forgiving, and unending love!
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” - John 13:34-35 NIV
"Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you." - Ephesians 4:32 ESV
"Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony." - Colossians 3:12-14 ESV
"1 Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. 5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus." Philippians 2:1-5 NIV
Soul
Every other component in our self (making the soul) functions as one, like Jesus.
SAMPLE PRAYER: Jesus, may all of who I am be shaped by all of who You are. I want to be like You, Jesus!
"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind." - Luke 10:27 NIV
"As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?" - Psalm 42:2 NIV
"My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God." - Psalm 84:2 NIV
"My soul is consumed with longing for your laws at all times... Your statutes are my delight; they are my counselors." - Psalm 119:20,24 NIV