Often To Pray

Often To Pray

Jesus. As in the Son of God, Jesus. 

Often. As in frequently, many times. 

Jesus often pulled back from His busy ministry for the purpose of prayer.  If anyone could’ve pulled the “I’ve got too much going on right now” card, it would have most assuredly been this Jesus who bore all of our sorrows and carried all of our griefs.  He did not just have a household or office to manage, He had the world on His shoulders, and yet He withdrew… often to pray. 

The high priority Jesus placed on prayer seems to be a strong indicator that for us to become like Him, to love and obey like Him, we need an inordinate amount of prayer in our lives.  Anyone else know this in theory but struggle with it in practice? 

Good news! That Jesus who prayed His way through His earthly life is now exalted to the right hand of God where He lives to make intercession for us! And we have been given the Holy Spirit who helps us in our weakness when we don’t know what to pray. 

Whew! Relief. 

Prayer is where the pursuit of purity begins (we even have an acronym for it, pure - pray, understand, resolve, engage). When we cultivate intimacy with God the old is uprooted and the new begins to thrive. 

We want to be a people who hear the irresistible call of our Lord who says “Come to me.”  And we want to imitate Him in that whole “often” bit. 

Take a moment even now to move toward Him – questions, praise, sighing, singing and all.  Let your “often” start with “now”.  Go ahead! Step away from the computer, it’ll be here when you get back.