Sorry for the delay, there was a slight technical glitch this morning and this first post dropped few hours late.
Day #1: “Finding a Time and a Place” Mark 1:35-39 And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, [Jesus] departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. 36 And Simon and those who were with him searched for him, 37 and they found him and said to him, “Everyone is looking for you.” 38 And he said to them, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.” 39 And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons. Our goal for this reading program is to encourage our readers toward a revitalized prayer life. We hope to do that through a wide range of methods. We will teach, encourage and model. There is a benefit to learning about prayer and deeper theological understanding of the one we pray to absolutely helps us to grow in our knowledge of prayer. That is why we will spend so much time in the coming weeks reflecting on who God is and why he invites us to pray with confidence. Some of what we need is also extremely practical. When the disciples came to Jesus asking for him to teach them to pray (Luke 11:1), it was immediately after Jesus had just been away praying, “in a certain place.” Apparently, it was the pattern for Jesus to go away to pray. This is very practical to consider. On one hand, we can pray anywhere and at any time. For example, the Apostle Paul urges us to pray “without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17.) and Jesus believed that his Father in Heaven always heard him (John 11:42.) But, Jesus also models a commitment to setting aside a specific time and place for prayer. Since he was an itinerant preacher, he did not always go to the same location. But he would intentionally seek out a “desolate place” in the early morning hour (v.35.) The reason seems obvious enough from the text. He wanted to go somewhere that he could not be interrupted. In this particular case he was successful. The people could not find him. Even his disciples had to search for awhile before he could be located (v.36.) Some people excuse their lack of structure in prayer by appealing to their desire to have ongoing and spontaneous prayer. But we see from the life of Jesus that this is not an either/or proposition. In fact, most people find that a regular and intentional time of prayer encourages them to have more spontaneous prayers throughout the rest of the day. By way of analogy, when a married couple has a regular “date night” it does not prevent them from having spontaneous conversation during their normal schedules. In fact, most people say that “date nights” make conversation easier during the rest of life because we are establishing better patterns of communication. What does this tell us about prayer? Even Jesus found it was important to be intentional to find a place and a time that were conducive to prayer. Practically speaking, this is one of the most important things for us to consider. If you want to have a revitalized prayer life, give some consideration to when and how you can pray.
That’s enough for today. We’re praying that God will help you take this step to know him better and interacting with him in a way that leads to greater spiritual fruitfulness. (MK) * There were a lot of problems with monastic spirituality. While we can admire their commitment to prayer, it often came at the cost of minimizing other areas of Christian faithfulness.
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AuthorThe primary author and coordinator of the blog is Pastor Matt Koerber. ArchivesCategories |