Have You Prayed Today?

But Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer. (Luke 5:16)

Have you ever noticed how often we read in the gospels that Jesus was surrounded by crowds? 

• Now it happened that while the crowd was pressing around Him and listening to the word of God, He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret. (Luke 5:1)

• Getting up, He went from there to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan; crowds gathered around Him again, and, according to His custom, He once more began to teach them. (Mark 10:1)

• A large crowd followed Him, because they saw the signs which He was performing on those who were sick. (John 6:2)
  

We find crowds round Jesus in many locations; in private homes, on mountainsides, in villages, in the Temple and by the lakeside. Yet, despite the constant pressure from the crowds, healing power flowed from Him as the deaf received their hearing, the lame walked, the blind saw, demons were cast out and multitudes were fed.

With a life surrounded by the needs of the multitudes, how did Jesus maintain His relationship with His Father? The answer is simple: He made time for prayer. It is clear that for Jesus,  prayer came first and last.

Jesus began his public ministry in prayer.                                                                                                                    
Now when all the people were baptised, Jesus was also baptised, and while he was praying, heaven was opened. (Luke 3:21)

After a time of ministering to the crowds, Jesus went aside to pray                                                               
 And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. (Matthew 14:23)

When He had important decisions to make, Jesus prayed
He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God.And when it was day, He called His disciples to Himself; and from them He chose twelve whom He also named apostles. (Luke 6:12,13)

Before starting the day, Jesus prayed
Before daybreak the next morning, Jesus got up and went out to an isolated place to pray. (Mark 1:35-39)

When facing the powers of darkness, Jesus prayed
Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to His disciples, "Sit here while I go over there and pray...” (Matthew 26:36)

The NLT Study Bible footnote on Luke 5:16, our title verse, is worth noting. It says: 'The Greek verb tense indicates that Jesus habitually withdrew for prayer.’ 

The greatest argument for the priority of prayer is the fact that Jesus was a man of prayer. If it was Jesus’ priority, let us also ‘habitually’ make it ours.
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“I would rather teach one man to pray than ten men to preach.”
CH Spurgeon

​Pauline Anderson