In
today’s Gospel
reading, we read: “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.” The
previous day had been quite demanding and the new one promised to be
the same.
Ever
since Jesus called
the demons out of the possessed man in Capernaum, the people would not
leave him
alone. The people began pressing upon him with their problems, bringing
him
their sick to be healed. It was for this reason that Jesus had come to
earth.
His mission
was to meet the needs of humankind, but there were so many of them.
How would Jesus
meet
them all? Where would
he get the strength to keep on giving
of himself in limitless ways?
If
Jesus needed help,
what about you and me? Every day there are needs to be met, decisions
to be made,
business to be attended to, actions that require more than we in our
own
strength
alone can achieve.
If
Jesus needed help,
what about you and me? Jesus did not struggle with these concerns long.
Early
in his life and ministry, he discovered the practicality and the power
of an
early morning meeting with God. He knew that he could not live in this
world
without God. Jesus knew that it was not humanly possible to accomplish
all that
he needed to accomplish every day of his life in his own strength alone.
He
also knew that he did
not have to. Not when the all-powerful, all-knowing, all-wise God, his
loving Father
was ever present, ready to provide, whatever he needed, whenever he
needed it,
however he needed it. All he had to do was ask.
That
is what prayer is.
Prayer is coming to God. Prayer is seeking God. Prayer is the appeal of
the
soul to God. Prayer is standing before God as “an empty jug before a
full fountain.”
Prayer is connecting with God who is the power source.
Prayer
is opening
ourselves up to God for nourishment. Prayer is communing with God. It
is living
an intimate relationship with God, surrendering all that we are to God.
Not to
pray is to be guilty of the incredible folly of ignoring the
possibility of adding
God to our limited resources.
In
prayer, Jesus sought
the strength that only communion and fellowship with God could provide.
If Jesus
needed this in his life, what about you and me?
Although
Jesus lived in
unbroken fellowship with God, he did not neglect an early morning
meeting with
God. To have a meeting with someone important, is not to leave the
meeting to
chance. It is setting a date, a time,
a place to meet, and it is keeping our
appointment, whatever the cost. Let us be totally honest. Most of our
meetings
with God are not planned. Our prayers are occasional, spontaneous, spur
of the
moment prayers. If we meet with God, it is usually an emergency or a
crisis. We
have tried everything else and failed. Now we will try God.
For
many Christians,
prayer is the last item on their agenda and it is regularly crowded out
by
things that they judge to be more important.
We
need to have an
appointment with God every day, an appointment that cannot be broken.
To have
an appointment with God is an expression of our sincere desire for God
and for
our relationship with God. It says to God that He is the most important
person
in our life.
In
the life of a Christian, prayer should be the first
item on the agenda. Prayer is the oxygen of our spiritual life. Without
prayer,
our spiritual life suffocates. When we pray, God enters our lives and
makes us
far more effective than before. He also fills us with His peace and
joy. And
thus, God becomes our hidden source of strength, our hidden wellspring
of
vitality.
