Taking Time To Pray

This morning I was reading from The Gospel of Mark, mainly because its been a long time since I read His Gospel, and the following verse caught my attention - Mark 1:35 NIV: "Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.". I was encouraged when I read this because that is exactly what I do, get up in the morning, find some place quiet where I can pray. I am blessed in that I can use my living room, rather than a mountainside, as Jesus did regularly.

I was also struck by the fact that Jesus took time to pray even though He walked in perfect obedience to the Father. He said that everything He did (John 5:19-20) and everything He said (John 8:28-29) where at the direction of the Father. Despite this intimate relationship Jesus still needed to take time to go and pray. Often times after a time of prayer He would introduce something new to His ministry - in the case of the verse above, it was after this time of prayer that Jesus started His itinerant ministry. In Luke 6:12-13 He went up on the mountain and afterwards announced and appointed the 12 Apostles. The simple point is that Jesus needed time to pray, and so do we. So, let us learn from Him and do the same!