Mark 1:35 - February 16, 2010

Mark 1:35 “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.”

What are you doing very early in the morning? During the last 17 years of pastoral ministry I have heard many men say “I am too busy to have a prayer life.” But what I know to be true is that a life of prayer is a matter of choice and priority not how busy you are. Jesus understood the value of solitary prayer.

Jesus was as busy as any man has ever been. The crowds were constantly pressing him to meet their needs. The atmosphere around him was so demanding that at times He found it necessary to escape by boat or slip away with His disciples so that they could decompress for a bit before the crowds found them again. They lived on the move, going from town to town every few days or so and the work was so constant the Apostle John wrote in his gospel in John 21:25; “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.” In all of this Jesus still placed prayer as a priority!

The gospels repeatedly emphasize the prayer life of Jesus. In this passage from Mark that we are considering Jesus is rising early to pray. In Lu. 6:12 Jesus is seen spending the whole night in prayer. In John chapter 17 we are given a glimpse of that prayer life as He talks to the Father about the resurrection of Lazarus that He is about to perform. In Mt. 14:23 Jesus goes off into the mountain to pray and is still there alone when the evening comes. These passages and so many more establish the centrality of prayer to a spiritual life and specifically to the life of Christ.

Jesus’ entire ministry, its power, its effectiveness and its timeliness were the outflow of His life of prayer. While ministering to a group of Jews who had placed their faith in Him Jesus reflects on the nature of His ministry by saying in John 8:37-38 “I am telling you what I have seen in the Father's presence.” Jesus is not ministering out of his education, his emotion or his intellect. Jesus is ministering out of the presence of the Father. His words are actions are the direct result of what He has received from the Father through his intimate life of prayer.

How much wasted effort could be prevented in each one of our lives if the things that we spend our time on would more consistently find their origin in the Father’s presence as we seek Him in prayer? Jesus is the supreme example of both intimacy with God and fruitfulness in life. He found the time to pray and the life of prayer that He lived enabled Him to live every day to the fullest, bearing fruit in all things. Paul prayed a prayer over the Colossian church that reflects this principle and is a pattern for us to follow as we build into our lives a rich life of prayer. Let this become a part of your prayers. Col 1:9 “We have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. 10 And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.”