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.
Mark 1:35
The spirit shrieked, convulsed him violently and came out. The boy looked so much like a corpse that many said, “He’s dead.” But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him to his feet, and he stood up.
After Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples asked him privately, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?”
He replied, “This kind can come out only by prayer.”
Mark 9:26–29
Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone…
Matthew 14:22–23
Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled.
Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”
Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
Matthew 26:36–39
“My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”
John 17:15–2
Mahatma Gandhi described prayer as “the key of the morning and the bolt of the evening”, and the first letter to the Thessalonians (5:17, KJV) encourages us to “pray without ceasing”.
Of our study passages, perhaps the most sobering is the story from Mark 9,
where the disciples struggled ineffectually to help the boy and were glad to have Jesus take over and sort things out. His response when they ask him the cause of their own failure later in private, “This kind can come out only by prayer,” demonstrates if we needed it that prayer is not just a religious duty or a mental exercise to induce pleasant feelings of calm, but makes a material difference in both occasional crisis and regular daily life.
The life of Jesus, beset on every side by people in trouble needing his help and people who hated him plotting his downfall, shows us a man who sought prayer as a thirsty man seeks a cold drink on a hot day. Jesus depended on prayer, took refuge in prayer, drew his strength and guidance from prayer.
A striking thing Jesus said was: “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it” (John 14:12–14).
This offers us the challenge that, if we will immerse ourselves in prayer like
Jesus and with Jesus, we too will see the wonderful works of God in our lives; we are more like Jesus than we think. The choice is ours.
Faithful God, you wait for us in the silence, to refresh our spirits and strengthen our souls for service. Give us the grace to turn aside and seek your presence, before the day begins, in the midst of everything, and when we lay ourselves down to rest. Thank you for being there for us; may we also be there for you. We ask it in Jesus’ holy name; Amen.
