Prayer is a vital area of the Christian life. Our Lord constantly prioritized prayer. His prayer life was so vibrant that his disciples were driven to ask him to teach them how to pray (Luke 11:1). Christians always need to go back to the Savior and learn from him how to pray.
Our Lord often sought alone time with the Father in prayer. Matthew spoke of Jesus going up to a mountain by himself to pray (Matt. 14:34). Mark shared how the Lord woke up early in the morning, while it was still dark, to go off to a deserted place to pray (Mark 1:35). Luke wrote of the Lord spending all night in prayer to the Father (Luke 6:12).
In Luke 5, Luke described how Jesus’ ministry was flourishing. News about him was spreading throughout the area, and people were coming to him from everywhere. They were coming to hear the rabbi preach and to be healed of their diseases. This was a time of fruitful ministry! How did Jesus respond to this work? In Luke 5:16, it says:
“Yet he often withdrew to deserted places and prayed.”
Luke 5:16
The Lord understood the priority of time with the Father before anything else. He was intentional about his time and physically moved himself to a quiet and undisturbed place. Time with the Father was so precious that it needed to be in a calm area. A pattern in his life of movement to be with the Father in an undisturbed location speaks to the priority he gave to prayer.
One of the most significant challenges facing people today is the proliferation of noise. Everywhere we turn, something or someone else attempts to get our attention. Whether it is another email in our inbox, a notification on our phone, a news flash on the television, or another meme on social media, it feels like everyone and everything wants our attention. The priorities of others start to consume us, and we lose control over what we hold most important.
Seek Week is an opportunity to take back our priorities by setting new intentions. Sometimes that takes going to a deserted place to pray. A deserted place is somewhere away from society’s noise, where we disconnect from the rest of the world so that our minds and hearts can be still before our Lord. Maybe that is a room in our home, time alone in our car, sitting in a pew at the church, or perhaps driving somewhere remote, leaving our phone in the car, and praying in that place.
Prayer is available in our chapel area during the week. Email us at info@catalystchurchsd.org to reserve a day and time, or call the church at (619) 479-4111. We would be happy to arrange that for you.
In our Daniel series, Pastor Jason shared a message about being a person of prayer, where he shared about setting an intention in prayer. Set a time aside this week to listen to that sermon. It’s available on our podcast here.
A prayer for Catalyst: Thank you, Lord, for setting a pattern for your people. You teach us how to pray. Lord, help us to steward our time well. Thank you, Lord, for quiet times to focus our minds and hearts on you. Lord, help us to clear out our distractions and to put you first in all things. Amen.
