Withdraw and Pray

Scripture

Luke 5:16
"So He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed"

Observation

Jesus is a popular man and people are coming to get their friends and relatives healed. He is preaching to the masses and He is performing miracles. In Chapter 5 we see that Jesus calls four fisherman as disciples. It is in this that we see Jesus get on a boat and preach to the multitudes and then He tells Simon to cast out his nets and fish. Simon doubted because they had caught nothing up until this point. But when he  cast his net out, they are over flowing and he has to call the other boat over to help. After this Jesus tells Simon, "Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men (Luke 5:10). You have to wonder that after all this ministry, Jesus must have been exhausted, but instead He went out and healed a leper. What we see next is something that all of us need to learn and become good at. Jesus withdrew into the wilderness and prayed.

Application

The amazing thing about Jesus is that He set forth the perfect example of how to do ministry. The thing that I like most is that Jesus knew the importance of prayer and alone time. Scripture says that "He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed (Luke 5:16). Something that I think a lot of Christians struggle with is sitting still and spending time with God. Jesus shows us the importance of withdrawing and talking to God. This is something that I need to do a better job of. It actually reminds me of the movie War Room. The little old lady in that movie, has a prayer closet, set up and she spends a ton of time in that room. She teaches the younger woman the importance of this, who in turn shows her daughter and her husband how important it is to pray for people and spend time with God. This is something that I want to get better at. I want to feel joy about stepping away, every day and spending time with God. I want to make prayer life a priority so that I can pray for the people that are important in my life. I also want to learn how to pray specifically for my ministry and my calling. I have trouble praying for me. I struggle talking to God about the things that are going on in my life. This has to change. I need to take Jesus' example and run with it.

Prayer

Father God, Thank you for sending Your Son, to show us how to live here on Earth and thank you for allowing Him to show us the proper way to pray and withdraw into the wilderness. Lord continue to mold me into the man you want me to be and give me the ability to grow in my prayer life.