Jesus Prayed - Day 7

“In the morning, while it was still very dark, [Jesus] got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.” (Mark 1:35)
Jesus prayed because he needed to pray. He needed to check in with God. He needed to listen to God. He needed to pour out his heart to God. He needed to ask for God’s help and courage and direction and peace. He got up early to pray. He prayed both all by himself and with others. He often left a busy ministry schedule to pray. He first got straight with God before he tried to work for God, heal for God, preach for God.
If Jesus needed to pray, how can we think that we don’t need to? How can we think or act like we are too busy to pray? We are too busy not to pray. Maybe if we prayed we wouldn’t feel so frantic, so frazzled, so fragmented.
We need to pray in order to remember who we are, whose we are, and what we need to be about. We need to pray to adore God, to give thanks to God, to confess to God.
Many of us don’t pray because we feel inadequate about praying. We feel like everyone else must do it better than we do it. We read books about prayer looking for some method or answer. We try praying for awhile, but then give up. We wonder if God is listening. We question whether he cares. We rattle off our petitions or intercessions and nothing seems to change.
So, what do I want to say about all this? Just do it. Just pray. Don’t read about it endlessly. Don’t fret about it. Don’t question about how to do it. Just sit and ask God to be with you. Listen. Cry. Give praise. Fall asleep—yes, sometimes that will happen—in God’s arms. Confess. Yell. Write letter to Jesus (this is one of the ways I pray). Read scripture—start with a gospel, and do it slowly, don’t rush. Do it on your knees or in your favorite chair or lying in your backyard. How you do it or where you do it doesn’t matter. Doing it matters enormously. Don’t listen to all those voices in your head that make you feel inadequate.
If Jesus needed to pray, so do you. So, join Jesus and pray. And remember that you are never praying alone.