Early African converts to Christianity were earnest and regular in private devotions. Each one reportedly had a separate spot in the thicket where he would pour out his heart to God. Over time the paths to these places became well worn. As a result, if one of these believers began to neglect prayer, it was soon apparent to the others. They would kindly remind the negligent one, "Brother, the grass grows on your path."
Today in the Word, June 29, 1992.
Mark 1:35 And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.
a. Mark 1:35. This is one verse about Jesus’ lifestyle which stands strong on its own. But we get greater clarity when we read the preceding verses. In short, the previous evening had been a very busy day for Jesus -- he had been healing the multitudes, casting out demons and curing and healing diseased people. This had been so successful that people came to his house. Not just a few people -- but the ENTIRE CITY!
b. Physically, Jesus must have been exhausted and tired -- if you speak to people who are involved in evangelism or very intense spiritual labours, it is often tiring -- because we are serving others not only with our words, but also from our inner beings. My wife and I had once met a missionary who serves in Chhatisgarh, and he had said that actually the hardest thing to do do is evangelism in missionary work -- because that is the real front line, one feels the resistance of the forces of darkness who don’t want to give up people whom they have captured. Even Paul asked people to pray for him to be bold. So Jesus was tired. You could expect Him to sleep.
c. Spiritual strength: you and I as a disciple of Jesus can expect “to be in the secluded place” -- but even if you are PHYSICALLY secluded, disciples DRAW SPIRITUAL strength in Prayer by being in morning fellowship with our heavenly Father.
d. But what does this verse say -- it says He was out early in the morning, WHILE IT was dark. I believe that this is one of the secrets of Jesus’ successful ministry - that he was disciplined, that He had a lifestyle of being secluded from people, and that even he saturated his personal time in prayer.
DISCIPLES draw their power and strength not ONLY with the physical discipline of getting up early in the morning but COMBINING that with dependence on God in prayer.
Military commandos have a disciplined lifestyle; Olympic athletes have a disciplined training lifestyle; in any area of human activity - physical and routine discipline give you very good results.
Here, what we are seeing is ALSO that Jesus was focused in getting His body to obey but ALSO to be AWAY from People when He was CLOSE to God in prayer.
And this is the secret of godly living -- we need to pull away from people in order to be close to God. When we are close to God, in prayer, in meditating on the Scriptures, in bringing our confusions, troubles, doubts to Him in prayer and only sharing them with Him, we will get the results that Jesus got!
How many Christians run around with other believers having “time of fellowship” or “hanging out” and so on -- which is fine. But do they ALSO spend that much time BEING in the presence of God -- even if it is NOT in the morning, at least once a week, Secluding yourself to pray and to have god examine your heart, allow the Word of God to penetrate, and influence and change and convict me? Doe that happen?
That’s the meaning of being in the “secluded place” that Jesus was also secluded -- even from his own disciples.
So there is a part of Christian living that is not very social. Like Jesus, we must spend a lot of time WITH GOD.
e. Application to me: If Jesus was like this, how much more we need to be full of prayer early in the morning. That’s the only way to prepare for the day ahead and the challenges ahead. Since Jesus prayed early in the morning, I may even ask, will not the disciple of Jesus also want to do what Jesus did?
f. Another application comes to mind: In Jesus’ life, we see that He spent LOTS of time in secret prayer with God and with nobody seeing Him. But when he had to pray in public, he would pray very briefly and God would answer that public, short prayer. The secret is what is the hidden life of prayer -- this is what Jesus referred to in Mathew 6:6
g. MODERN APPLICATION: About 25 years back, Stephen Covey wrote a book called “first things first”. You may have seen it in bookstores. It’s not a Christian book. One thing that Covey uncovered in his study of great leaders is a simple principle that we are seeing in the life of Jesus : “Private victory precedes public victory”. And this is the same thing that Jesus talked about in Matthew 6 -- our father watches what we are doing in secret. What is done in secret will be rewarded publicly by God.
Note :- From the Sermon notes - series on Discipleship by Dr. Anil Jacob for Crossway.
Stanley Thomas Isac
Stanley is serving as the Pastor of Crossway Church in New Delhi, he can be reached at stanleytisac@gmail.com
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