Life of Christ 45
It is Sunday morning.
Jesus had preached yesterday, and then stayed up late into the night doing
miracles and ministering to people. Naturally, then, as all preachers do early on Mondays, He gets up before dawn,
walks out of town, finds a lonely spot, and pours out His soul in prayer (Mark
1.35-39).
I do not have, today,
some great insight from the rabbinical writings. I do not have some fascinating
explanation of the story. I do not have some interesting tidbit from the
culture of the day. What I do have is five simple thoughts from this story
about prayer.
First, we notice that He
prayed for large chunks of time.
God hears you, assuming
your heart is right, no matter how long or short you pray. Additionally, there
is no specific scripture passage that demands we spend a certain amount of time
in prayer. But these two facts, while facts, do not mean that our prayer life
is designed to consist of short, brief, occasional prayers. What we find in the
life of Christ is an example modeled for us in scripture of a prayer life that
occupied great amounts of time.
'And in the morning,
rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary
place, and there prayed' (Mark 1.35).
'He went out into a
mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God' (Luke 6.12).
'And he cometh, and
findeth them sleeping, and saith unto Peter, Simon, sleepest thou? couldest
thou not watch one hour?' (Mark 14.37).
Respectfully, don't tell
me that you can't pray for an hour. Tell me you haven't yet, but don't tell me
you can't. I think, if you tried, you might not get to an hour but you would be
shocked how much further you would get than you thought you would, and with
time and experience your ability to pray in blocks of time will grow.
Second, He prayed in the
wilderness.
I have already
referenced this in this blog, but one of the things you see about the life of
our Lord is an oft repeated emphasis. It is a scriptural truth that you can
pray anywhere and God can hear you (John 4.24). It is also a scriptural truth
that you can pray among other people (Matthew 21.13). But there is also a
scriptural emphasis on praying alone, in complete privacy. When there is zero
fear of being overheard you can pour out the innermost thoughts of your heart
and soul (Psalm 62.8).
Yes, this can be done
alone on top of a skyscraper, for instance, but there is something to be said
in scripture about the importance of stillness and quiet when communicating
with God. 'Be still and know that I am God' (Psalm 46.10). 'Woe unto them that
join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they
may be placed alone in the midst of the earth' (Isaiah 5.8). I encourage you to
find a wilderness somewhere, a place where you can be completely alone, and in
relative quiet, and then spend some chunks of time in prayer there.
I can hear it now, 'This
is all well and good for you preachers, but it is completely unreasonable for
me.' Why? Is Jesus only modeling prayer for preachers? Are preachers the only
ones that need to pray or are they the only ones to whom God listens? I'm glad
you work hard for a living, forty or fifty hours a week, but what about your
days off? Could you not take an hour or two and just get alone with God once in
a while out in the woods? Find a wilderness and pour out your heart to the Lord
until you forget what time it is.
Third, He prayed.
I know why I need to
pray. I'm sinful. My natural state is to drift away from God. I'm a frail and
weak human being. I'm completely powerless to change events beyond my control.
I also know why you need to pray. After all, you are just like me. But why
would Jesus need to pray? He was sinless, never away from the Father for a
moment of His existence until the cross, He worked miracles, and He knew what
was in man's heart. When you set you and I on one side and Jesus on the other
it would seem that He wouldn't need to pray at all, yet He clearly did, and did
as a point of emphasis.
I believe strongly that
although He was the divine Son of God He laid aside aspects of those attributes
when He took upon Himself the form of man. The human Jesus voluntarily was not
omnipresent, omniscient, or omnipotent. He did His works in the power of the
Holy Spirit, yielded to Him. In other words, He, in essence, depended for what
He needed just as much on God as you and I have to do. And so He prayed. And if
He prayed then you and I certainly need to pray.
Fourth, the more He was
involved in ministry the more He prayed.
We find Him, at this
point, several months into His public ministry, on His initial preaching tour
of Galilee. He has begun doing miracles. He has begun preaching on a regular
basis. He has begun gathering to Himself a few men to train. Galilee is
responding to all of this with enthusiasm, and the Bible says that at this time
'all men seek for thee' (Mark 1.37).
If this took place in 21st
century America to us we would promptly hire an assistant pastor and another
secretary, launch some new programs for the young people, begin formulating a
book, and plan a nationwide preaching tour. Jesus didn't. He prayed.
Every child of God needs
to serve Him, whether inside a local church or outside of it. As that ministry
grows it should begin to dawn on you that your need for His help also grows.
For example, a bread delivery truck driver is assigned a certain route. If he
takes his work conscientiously and does it well he will find that his route
grows. As his route grows he will then find he needs more bread. The same thing
is true of you and I. Just like Jesus, the more we are involved in ministry the
more we need to pray. I am reminded of Luther's famous dictum, 'I have so much
to do today I must spend the first three hours in prayer.' We cannot give
people what they need unless we get it from the Lord, and the more need with
which we are faced the more time we must spend with Him.
Fifth, He prayed, and
others followed. 'And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he
went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed. And Simon and
they that were with him followed after him' (Mark 1.35-36).
One of the great fringe
benefits of becoming a person of prayer is that others follow you in the same
thing. Inside every genuine Christian there beats at least a tiny desire to
learn to pray. It may be largely silenced by materialism, carnality, laziness,
intimidation, comparison, or insecurity, but it is there. When you learn to
really get a hold of God He can use that to motivate others to want to get a
hold of God too. 'And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place,
when he ceased, one of his disciples said, Lord, teach us to pray' (Luke 11.1).
Fathers, if you want
your children to pray, then pray. Mothers, if you want your children to pray,
then pray. Teachers, if you want your students to pray, then pray. Husbands, if
you want your wife to pray, then pray. Friends, if you want your friends to
pray, then pray. Blaze the trail and others will come behind you.
Several years ago my
father sustained a terrible heart attack, and had to undergo an emergency
quadruple bypass surgery. God, in His grace, brought him through it, but I am
reminded of the days in the hospital immediately afterward. He wasn't allowed
to go home until the breath in his lungs was powerful enough to hold a certain
ball up in a breathing chamber. This was important because breath brings
oxygen, and you cannot live without oxygen. So they had him breathe and breathe
and breathe into that little chamber, pushing the ball up again and again and
again. Prayer is the lungs through which our Christianity breathes; pray and
pray and pray, and then watch in amazement as your prayer life takes shape and
strength.
There is nothing more
important to your Christian life than prayer.
If you would like to hear the audio version of this blog you can find it here on our church website. Just press 'launch media player' and choose We Preach Christ 20, 'And There Prayed.'
No comments:
Post a Comment