Torch, Spring-Summer 1999

There are three things we should notice from this passage about prayer: its priority, its place, and its purpose. First of all, recognize the priority prayer held in the life of Christ. Scripture says it was "in the morning." Some might interpret this to mean that morning is the best time for prayer. That may be the case. But, of course, prayer is important at any time during the day, whether it is when we start the day in the morning, or if it is in the middle of the afternoon, or in the evening, or even at the close of the day before we go to bed. Prayer is important at all times. If you study the prayer life of our Lord, you can't help but notice the emphasis that He placed upon prayer throughout the day, especially the emphasis that He placed on prayer in the morning. A number of other passages of Scripture teach this element. Look at Mark 6:45-46 (NIV). "Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of Him to Bethsaida, while He dismissed the crowd. After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray." After the miracle of feeding the 5,000, He got alone to pray. Luke 5:15-16 (NN) states, "Yet the news about [Jesus] spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear Him and to be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed." In the next chapter of Luke, you will notice one of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and He spent the entire night praying to God. At the transfiguration in Luke 9:28-29, Luke records that when that wonderful 10 Torch transfiguration took place, they were praying. In fact, Jesus was leading them in prayer. So there is little doubt that our Lord made a major emphasis upon prayer morning, noon, and night. Scripture goes to great lengths to record for us the prayer discipline of other godly men. In Genesis 19:27, you'll read that Abraham got up early to pray. Exodus 34:2-4, states that Moses chose to get up early to pray. In Joshua 3:1, Joshua chose to start his day with prayer. In Psalm 5:3 and again in Psalm 57:8, David, the man after God's own heart, writes about the morning as the time he prayed. These men all made prayer a priority in their lives. The challenge is that this has to be a priority with us. One of the ways that it becomes a priority is that we set aside some time at the beginning of the day to pray. I can almost sense the response from many: "But God, don't you know how busy I am?" Consider this: the Gospels record 52 days in the life of our Lord. They record a period of less than two months in the life of Jesus. If you take those 52 days and study them, you will discover the busiest man who ever walked planet earth. Look again at Mark 1 and see all that was taking place. People were beating down H is door. There were people to be healed and there were demons to be cast out. It was a drain on Him– meeting the needs of others, glorifying God-and He, I believe, went to bed totally exhausted. You get exhausted and I get exhausted. You might say, "But He was God!" That is true, but He was also man. His exhaustion was no different than ours. His weariness was no different than ours. I imagine there were times when it was difficult for Him to get out of bed and have His feet hit the floor, just as it is difficult for us. You will