Daily EncouragementNäide

Sometimes exhortations to follow our Lord to the place of prayer discourage us. We feel that we cannot scale those heights, and that we shall be out of our depth if we try to enter the realm of the commnion between the sinless Son and the Father.

Nevertheless, in a sense we can follow the Lord, even if we only reach the Holy Place and do not enter with him into the holiest of all. His practical example, as he walked earth's by-ways, is surely means to affect us in some measure. The depths of his prayer will be beyond us, but the discipline of his prayer life should inspire us. We see it here - the early hour, the deliberate rising, the lonely place, the definite prayer.

It is certain that his most outstanding disciples have not failed to follow his example. It was said of John Wesley that he believed in “sanctification by faith, plus rising at 4 a.m.” Hudson Taylor testified, “For years the sun has never risen and found me in bed.” “It was invariably his custom to rise early in the morning and to spend the first hour of the day with God,” says Spencer Walton's wife. And a myriad of ordinary disciples know the blessing of following, albeit falteringly, the same principle.