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Jesus in Prayer, Part 1
(This exercise was written by Jason Coker as part of our prayer journey with Ikon Community.)
Jesus didn’t just teach about prayer, he also prayed! This week we continue our prayer series by looking at examples of Jesus in prayer. We can learn much from seeing what his own prayer time looked like. Today we begin with a short glimpse into Jesus’ prayer life from Mark 1:35-37:
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. Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!”
The most obvious thing to notice about this passage is that Jesus took time, early in the day, to find solitude in prayer. So what’s so hard about that?
Time and solitude. That’s what’s hard.
We live in a society and in an era when these two resources might be more scarce than ever. We have more distractions and more commitments than we’ve ever had in human history. Just as yourself, “When do you have a significant amount of free time to spend alone?” If you’re like most people I know, the answer is, “almost never.” The thing we often miss about this passage is that Jesus was very busy too! Go ahead, read the whole chapter and ask yourself if you’ve ever been that busy! Jesus was so busy, in fact, that he had to get up early to pray alone.
Martin Luther is known to have said, “I have so much to do (today) that I should spend the first three hours in prayer.” The busier we are, the more we need prayer to keep us sane.
I think we have two choices. We either accept these limitations or we make a change in our own lives. We either continue with the pace of life that is distracted to us by a modern society obsessed with busyness, money, entertainment, and noise or we find something, somewhere to reject in order to live a more sane and sustainable life.
Here’s the thing, if you can’t even find a little time in your day (or week!) to pray alone then is that a sustainable lifestyle? How long can you realistically keep that up? If Jesus needed time alone to maintain a life of spirit, what makes us think we can do without it?
This isn’t about performance. This isn’t about merit. This is about nourishment. Prayer is the feasting of the soul on God. How long have you been starving yourself?
Exercise
There’s only one exercise today: Sit down with your calendar and make some changes to accommodate private, solitary prayer at least 3 times per week. Cut something out. Give something up. Be ruthless. If you already do that, great! Take this time to pray like Jesus did.