Prayer = Purpose

Luke 5:16 (New Living Translation)
New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers.
16But Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer.

In the fifth chapter of Luke's gospel, I am struck by the fact that Jesus' ministry was clearly responsive to people's physical needs as well as spiritual. Doctor Luke would have found it important to record this fact accurately.

I see too, Jesus withdrawing yet again. That was one of his "essentials," and the thing that gave him the ability to stride out into the hours ahead of him with such clarity of purpose. I want to really absorb that fact and make it my pattern.

God is teaching me to say "No," with confidence to anything that is not in line with his best purposes for my life. He is teaching me that I have limited energy and time (what a surprise), and that spreading myself thin and tiring myself out are not his will. He is teaching me that there is great treasure stored up in this precious hour before the day starts, and that if I make it my priority above all else, as Jesus did, to withdraw, and connect with the Father, then he will fill my open hands and heart with those things he wants me to share with a hungry world.

Secondly, only by staying this closely connected with him will I be able to see clearly what he is doing and what he would have me do.

Prayer: Father my heart overflows with love for you. I want to be a ready pupil. You are so ready to teach us if we only listen.

John 5:19 (New Living Translation)
New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers.
19Jesus replied, "I assure you, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does.

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