But Jesus would withdraw to deserted places for prayer.
Luke 5:16
News of him spread even more and huge crowds gathered to listen and to be healed from their illnesses. But Jesus would withdraw to deserted places for prayer. (Verse 15+16)
We often act different than Jesus, as if we knew better. When we get famous, then stress starts for us. We have to make all people happy and work from morning to night. When we find a good job, we have to prove ourselves and deliver maximum performance. Instead of satisfaction we are governed by stress and hectic. The more our tasks are growing, the less time we have for Him. What a Shame.
Jesus has deliberately shaped a different life style. He didn’t become a slave of work or the needs of humans. He only was a slave of God and obeyed Him. He didn’t let others take possession of Him, even if He saw how necessary His mercy was. Was He therefore an egoist? No, He knew exactly: Without God’s power, without prayer He could do nothing! Just like a torch glows as long as the battery is full, He can serve only as long as the power of God fills Him. However great may be the darkness – when the battery is dead, the light goes out. Even when you’re so important: Without the power of God you will run out of power.
Jesus needed the times of communion with the heavenly Father. Especially when difficult decisions must take place or a lot of work waited for Him. He rather refrained from food, drink and sleep as from the conversation with His Father. So He could do the work of God, otherwise it might have become His own work.
If we want to do God’s work here, we always need to know what is His will – just like Jesus. Otherwise we simply do our own work and not God’s service. Not waste your life with “important” things, do things that are important for eternity! Like a wheel, whose spokes are ordered around the middle of the axis, our life shall be. When the spokes tangle up, how shall the wheel rotate? How are we supposed to do our service to God? Only in prayer, in communion with God, we learn what He wants. Only in this togetherness we get the power, the courage, the determination, the peace of God.
Thank you, Jesus, You show me what is really important. Yes, I want to take time each day for You, there may be so many and other important things! But You are the center of my life, the axis around which everything revolves. Thank You, for filling me with everything I need. Please give me wisdom, to schedule the time with You well and also to realize it then. Nothing is more important to me than You.