Verse for the week of February 14th:
Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him
Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray.
(Luke 9:28)
If you read the entire Gospel of Luke, one of the underlying themes within the Gospel is prayer. Luke emphasizes prayer more than the other 3 gospel accounts. Within the Gospel of Luke, there are 25 references to prayer. The other 3 gospel accounts (Matthew, Mark, and John) only have 32 references to prayer all together.
In the text for today, we have Jesus taking three of his disciples with him to a mountain to prayer. Within Luke, it seems like every time Jesus has an important decision or significant event happen, Luke mentions Jesus goes off to pray.
This should serve as a good reminder to us. Do we couch our decisions, our life, or other events with prayer?
Are we prayerful people?
Sometimes it seems like it is easy to forget to pray. Or that we get so busy that we either forget to take time to pray or that there is so much to do that we do not feel like we can take the time to pray.
Jesus models for us one very important aspect of living out a spiritual life. That aspect is a life of prayer. Prayer is a way that brings us into a relationship with God. Being intentional about praying often and regularly is that it helps us to maintain that relationship between ourselves and God. Sometimes it is easy to go to God in prayer when bad time comes or when we are stressed or when we feel overwhelmed. However, during the good times it is easy to not be as intentional about taking everything to God in prayer.
One of the poems that I have collected over the years talks about taking time to pray. It goes like this:
Too Busy Not to Pray
I got up early one morning and rushed right into the day;
I had so much to accomplish, I didn’t have time to pray.
Problems just tumbled about me and grew heavier with each task;
Why doesn’t God help me, I wondered; He answered, “You didn’t ask.”
I wanted to see joy and beauty, but the day toiled on, gray and bleak;
I wondered why God didn’t show me – He said, “But you didn’t seek.”
I tried to come into God’s presence; I used all my keys at the lock;
God gently and lovingly chided, “My child, you didn’t knock.”
I woke up early this morning and paused before entering the day;
I had so much to accomplish that I had to take time to pray.
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