Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side to Bethsaida, while He Himself was sending the crowd away. 46After bidding them farewell, He left for the mountain to pray. Mark 6:45-46 NASB
If there is one thing that should jump out to us when we look at the life of Jesus, it should be how often prayer was emphasized. He would often leave the public eye to go be alone with His Father in prayer. He found more joy being in prayer than He did with being a public figure. Make no mistake about it, Jesus was extremely popular in His day. Crowds of thousands of people would follow Him and push in on Him when He would enter their town or region. Yet, in what seemed to be the most inopportune times, Jesus would slip away to be alone with His Father through prayer. The gospel of Luke has been called by some 'the gospel of prayer'. The reason being that Luke records some of the same events as the other New Testament writers, but he will include the prayer life of Jesus unlike the other authors. For instance: The other authors say that Jesus was in the Jordan River being baptized and the Spirit descended on Him as a dove – Luke says it was while He was praying that the Spirit descended on Him (Luke 3:21). The other authors say that Jesus chose His 12 disciples – Luke says it was after He spent a whole night in prayer that He chose the 12 disciples (Luke 6:12). The other authors say that Jesus died on a cross – Luke says that even when Jesus was dying He was praying for those who persecuted Him (Luke 23:34). The other authors say Jesus went on a mountain and He was transfigured – Luke says it was while He was praying that He was transfigured (Luke 9:29). Luke even says in Luke 22:39 that it 'was His custom' to withdraw and pray. What does this teach us? That even the Son of God demonstrated for us the power and need of an intimate prayer life with the Father. Some of the greatest saints of old had the greatest prayer lives. The things that we love about the saints of old like their books, messages, acts of faith etc. all flowed from an intimate, real relationship with the Father through prayer. Leonard Ravenhill is one of my personal heroes of the faith. His teaching on prayer and his lifestyle of prayer has impacted me personally in many ways. Leonard Ravenhill died in 1994 at the age of 87, but up until his last days his passion for prayer and the prayer meeting never died. He was still holding weekly and monthly prayer meeting for pastors and evangelists late into he 80's. The one thing that people remember the most about his life was his prayers. They knew that he was a man that walked with God based upon the way that he communicated with God. Leonard said: "Let the fires go out in the boiler room of the church and the place will still look smart and clean, but it will be cold. The Prayer Room is the boiler room for its spiritual life. The true church lives and moves and has its being in prayer." Questions to Consider: 1. Do you find it a struggle to be disciplined in your prayer life? What are some steps you can take today to hep you be more disciplined? 2. Think of a time that God has moved on your behalf when you asked Him in prayer. If He did it before He will do it again! What are you praying for today?
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