Developing Your Prayer LifeIhe Atụ

The Most Important Time You’ll Ever Spend

In the Bible, we often read about Jesus going to places all alone to pray. There were times when Jesus woke up early in the morning to pray or stayed up late at night to find a place where He could be alone with His Father. Even as the Son of God, Jesus understood how important it was for Him to withdraw from others and pray.

We find an example of this in the book of Mark when Jesus fed the 5,000.

The crowd was probably buzzing with excitement after seeing the supernatural multiplication of the fish and loaves, and the disciples must have been so excited about the miraculous ministry they had witnessed that they didn’t want to leave. But Jesus sent the disciples away. Mark 6:45 says He “constrained” them, meaning Jesus made them leave.

After the disciples went away, the Bible tells us that Jesus sent away the people and then departed into a mountain to pray.

Jesus had just fed 5,000 people. It was the largest meeting He had ever had, and it was exciting! But what does Jesus do? He doesn’t celebrate the success of His miracle with His disciples. The Bible says “straightway” Jesus sent everyone away so He could go up into the mountains to pray.

I want you to notice the word “straightway” in verse 45. The word “straightway” in the Greek language means without delay. In other words, it means to do something immediately and without any interference. The use of this word tells us Jesus was determined. Even though He had just experienced this great victory, Jesus was determined to remove Himself from the multitude so He could pray to His Father without any interference. Jesus recognized His need to stay in communion with God and prioritized spending time with His Father!

There are many people facing real problems in their lives right now, and maybe you are one of them. But I want to tell you that we get through difficult times by coming to the Lord in prayer. I encourage you to spend quiet time with the Lord today, casting the full weight of all your cares upon Him just as Psalm 55:22 commands us to do.

Your flesh may try to tell you there are more important things to do, but when distractions scream for your attention and try to pull you out of that consecrated place with the Lord, you must be resolute and say, “No, I’m not doing anything else until I’ve come to my mountain to pray because it’s my source of strength, my source of peace, and it’s where I’m going to get all my answers!”

Study Questions:

1. Notice how important a prayer life was to Jesus and the fulfillment of His ministry on the earth. What do you think He talked about with the Father during His prayer time?
2. John 5:19 tells us the Son only did what He saw the Father doing, and John 12:49 says Jesus only spoke what the Father told Him to speak. When do you think Jesus received this instruction from the Father?