Study inMark’s Gospel

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Jesus At PrayerChap 1v31-39

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IntroductionYears ago our children were given a present of a drawing kit. It included a number of animal templates which they were able to draw around. Although their draughting skills were not very well developed, there was unimaginable delight on their faces when they discovered that they had drawn an animal which was readily identifiable.

Up until this point there had been no appreciable difference between their drawing of a horse, a rabbit, an elephant and a sheep etc. Hitherto each animal had looked like a sausage speared by four cocktail sticks. But with the templates a whole knew world opened up before them. For the first time they had a pattern to follow.

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A Regular PracticeThe passage before us draws our attention to Jesus at prayer. It is the pattern of prayer in the life of Jesus that I want us to look at and try to learn from.

"Very early in the morning while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place to pray".

Prayer was a spiritual duty in which Jesus was regularly engaged. Those who think, "I surely don't need to be disciplined in prayer", should ask the following question. If Jesus, who was the sinless Son of God, felt the NEED to pray, how much more do we need to be engaged in prayer? The discipline of prayer was clearly built into Jesus’ life.

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A Regular PracticeIn the gospels we find Jesus at prayer at different times of the day and at crucial stages of his life. He is at prayer at his baptism, at prayer before he chose his twelve disciples, at prayer on the Mt. of Transfiguration after a popular movement tried to seize him and make him king, and again we find him at prayer as wrestles in Gethsemane.

The Lord Jesus had such a regular, disciplined, meaningful prayer life that his disciples asked, "Lord teach us to pray“Lk.11v1, while he himself on another occasion could say to them ‘you ought always to pray’. Lk.18v1.

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A Regular PracticeA disciplined habit of prayer is not easily formed. Charles Simeon of Cambridge, who helped prepare students prepare students for the ministry and mission field, found disciplined prayer difficult. His biographer writes: “Early rising did not come easy to him; it was a habit resolutely fought for and acquired. Finding himself too fond of his bed he had resolved to pay a fine for every offence, giving half-a-crown to his servant. One morning he caught himself reasoning that the good woman was poor and that half-a-crown would be very useful to her. He purposed that if he rose late he would throw a guinea into the water. He did this only once. Guineas were not abundant in his purse and he had learned to look on them as the Lord's money.”

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A Regular PracticeJesus probably chose early morning as a time when he was least likely to be distracted. And that is important. There is nothing special about the time when we pray as long as we do so. Mothers with early rising toddlers, men who work an early shift, and others who are not morning people find it easier to find another part of the day in which they can pray. Though clearly, the value of the morning is that it enables us to commit the business of the day into the hand of God before it takes place.

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A Regular PracticeChristians sometimes fail to pray because they are not ‘in the mood for prayer’. They forget that the Christian life is a battle and their enemy will do all in his power to neutralise their God-given weapon of prayer. C. S. Lewis in ‘Screwtape Letters’ describes correspondence between a junior and a senior demon.

“The beginner will attempt to produce in himself a vaguely devotional mood in which real concentration of will and intelligence have no part. One of their poets, Coleridge has recorded that he did not pray with 'moving lips and bended knees', but merely 'composed his spirit in love' and indulged 'a sense of supplication'. That is exactly the sort of prayer we want”.

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A Regular PracticeWe are too controlled by our feelings. Many Christians say, 'I will pray when I feel like praying. Then when I feel more like praying then perhaps I will pray with greater regularity'. How deluded is their thinking. Feeling did not govern Jesus’ praying. You do not become a competent pianist by playing when the mood takes you and by disregarding the daily discipline of practice. So to in the life of prayer.

“The one concern of the Devil is to keep the saints from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, prayerless religion. He laughs at our work, mocks at our wisdom but trembles when we pray”. Samuel Chadwick

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A Regular PracticeWhen Jesus prayed he spoke to his Father in heaven. Prayer is an evidence of a personal relationship with God. When Ananias was sent to restore the sight of Saul after his conversion on the Damascus road, God highlighted the transformation which had taken place in Saul's life saying, 'he is praying‘ Acts 9v11. For years Saul, the Pharisee, had said prayers, sincere prayers, eloquent prayers. So what is so different now? He now had a living relationship with God and that relationship has begun to express itself in prayer. What Paul describes in Rom. 8 as the Spirit of adoption in the heart of the believer which cries out, 'Abba Father'.

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A Regular PracticeTravelling second class on the railway in Pakistan is like travelling in a mobile sardine tin. A blind man made his way up and down the compartment is search of a place to pray. Eventually some people made a few square feet available to him. He asked to be pointed in the direction of Mecca. He went through his prayer ritual despite the fact that the train's movement conspiring to throw him off balance. His fear of judgement made him determined to pray to a God, who, by his own admission, could not be known. How much more should the Christian’s love for God make him even more determined to have fellowship with the One who has revealed himself so clearly to him?God's children should take great delight in the privilege of prayer for they are speaking to their heavenly Father.

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A Specific PriorityPrayer was also a specific priority for Jesus. He could make time to speak with his Father in the midst of a demanding schedule. The previous day had been physically and emotionally draining. The day ahead would be filled with relentless activity. He could have argued,

'As long as I busily engaged in God's work prayer can be dispensed with for a while‘!

But, the man or woman who is too busy in Christian service to pray, is too busy.

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A Specific PriorityThere is a link between prayer and fruitful service. We are not provided with the content of his prayer but we would be safe to conclude that it involved praying that the Father would render the work accomplished the previous day fruitful while equipping him to cope with the work which lay ahead. Here is an amazing paradox and one which you may have already discovered, spending time with God equips you to get through your work more quickly, efficiently and fruitfully. It is unspiritual logic to say, 'I have so much to do today, I have no time to pray'. The fruitfulness of our Christian lives depends upon prayer.

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A Specific PriorityJohn Newton the converted slave trader and minister of the gospel wrote;“The principal cause of my leanness and unfruitfulness is owing to my unaccountable backwardness in prayer. I can write or read or converse with a ready heart; but prayer is more spiritual and inward than any of these and the more spiritual any duty is the more my carnal heart is apt to start from it”.Much can be accomplished in the service of God through prayer. It can bring light into men's darkened minds and hearts and deliver those whose lives are enslaved by sinful habits. It can open the door of hope to the despairing. Prayer is not incidental to the work of God it is the work of God.

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A Specific PriorityJesus preserved a necessary balance between work and prayer. Two extreme views regarding prayer and work are fuelled by the devil and his kingdom. The first says, 'I am too busy working for God to pray for God's work' while the second says, 'I am too busy praying for the work of God to engage in God's work'. The devil is equally happy with a cloistered monk or a Christian workaholic. Of course there is a great deal that needs to be done for God in the world, both our Christian witness and deeds of mercy are of great importance. But notice there was ‘urgency without tyranny’ in the ministry of Jesus. He balanced wonderfully the relationship between prayer and work. A balance we must pursue.

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A Particular PurposePrayer for Jesus also had a particular purpose beyond fellowship with the Father, and fruitfulness in service. It was the source of his spiritual strength. Spiritual ministry is draining.

Jesus drew attention to this fact, when the woman with the issue of blood stretched out and touched him. He said, ‘power has gone out from me’ Lk. 8.46. The human nature of Jesus needed to be strengthened for service and that came about through prayer. Jesus’ public ministry and service was nourished and sustained by private prayer.

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A Particular PurposeIn addition, prayer strengthened Jesus’ resolve. Look at the context of these verses. You can almost hear the rebuke in the disciples voices, 'everyone is looking for you'v37. News of Jesus’ healing miracles had spread like wildfire. Crowds were queuing up for a repeat performance. Already the disciples are showing signs of being captivated by 'success'. Jesus stems the flow of their excitement, by indicating that neither, the desires of the people nor, of his disciples dictate the direction of the work. He refused to be distracted from the teaching priority of his mission. Prayer helps us to focus upon what we have been called upon to do for God. It strengthens our resolve to do that no matter the strength of opposition.

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ConclusionBoth the church and individual Christians will constantly experience powerful temptation to be popular, to give people what they want rather than what they need and what is good for them.

A successful church is not one which meets the demands and expectations of men but one that is faithful to the task to which it has been called, no matter how unspectacular or controversial it may be.

We need constantly to be on our guard for, as a result of prayerlessness, individual Christians and whole congregations have been distracted from their God-entrusted service. Follow in Jesus’ steps, embrace his pattern of prayer and cry, 'Lord teach us to pray'.