Knowing Jesus || Man Of Prayer

Hi blog fam.

It’s been almost four weeks of digging more into Jesus and if you have missed #OnlineBibleStudy for the past weeks, click here.

For today, the one deal about Jesus that was ringing in my heart is “man of prayer”.

So let’s dig into this attribute of Jesus and see how it can help us also to become more like Him.

“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.
Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!”
Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else–to the nearby villages–so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.”
So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.”
-Mark 1:35-39

Now, its amazing the way our lives would change if we would just take some time to dig in and mediate on who Jesus is.

imbedded in those few verses above is the solution for weak prayer lives.

First of all, some of us wonder about why we should pray.
Why is it so important to have a prayer life as a Christian?
Isn’t it enough to just give our lives to Christ? Must one come and kill himself and die?

But see what example Jesus left for us.
Showing us that even as He is God Himself, in His human nature He needed that communication line open with God in prayer.

A few things can be gotten from this:

1: Jesus was/is a man of prayer, no doubt about it.

“But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.”
-John 5:16

 

“…Christ Jesus, who died–more than that, who was raised to life–is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.”
-Romans 8:34

 

See how amazing Jesus’ life is that even right now, He still intercedes and prays for us continually.
Now, if this doesn’t show us how important prayer is, what will?

Jesus OFTEN withdrew to pray. It wasn’t a one-off thing in His life, His prayer altar was/is consistent, continually offering up sweet-smelling incense to God even right this minute.

Who are we not to follow in His steps?

Now, we know that prayer is important, so much so that God Himself prays and continually keeps His prayer lines open, but how do we grow to the point where our prayers can be OFTEN like Jesus is?

Let’s see a few principles from Jesus’ life that can help us:

 

2: He arose early in the morning:
Now, I have been struggling for months to have a 5am regular quiet time with God. I pray by 12am or 3am but then find it difficult to rise at 5am for the word but then see our Lord waking up early even before daybreak after a long day of ministering to others.
Who are we to cite traffic, busyness or tiredness?
Was it easy for Jesus to wake up early? If there was an alarm, did He snooze it?
We know that Jesus encountered same struggles we encounter in the flesh but He overcame.
He still was able to place His time of prayer with God as a priority.

So for us struggling, we can pray:
Lord, I want to seek early. I want to pant after you as a deer pants for water.
Give me thirst for you again. Thirst that overcomes tiredness and busyness in Jesus name, amen.

3: He went to a solitary place:
Our prayer times will be more effective if we would learn to go alone to speak with God.
Not with phones, or worries about today/yesterday, not with the crowd. Jesus wasn’t a crowd man. He ministered to them but knew when to withdraw so He could pump Himself full of God.

Our prayer altar is where we draw strength for the race, we cannot do without it.
Jesus understood what I still struggle with: PLACING WALK WITH GOD ABOVE WORK FOR GOD.
And when it came to the time for Him to commune with the Father, He shut all things and all people down and went away to be with God.

Now, we pray constantly to God. Walk on the streets and pray, in traffic or at the sink washing plates, etc… but we see here that having a secret place where its us and God alone is very important.

Don’t have your place of meeting with God yet?
Check your schedule and ask the Holy Spirit to help you fix a time for seeking your Father’s face in prayer.

 

3: Jesus got instructions from His prayer altar:
Sometimes we are confused about what to do and how to go about it.
But see, Jesus stood up from prayer time telling the disciples that He had to leave and go to the other villages to preach.

 

Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!”
Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else–to the nearby villages–so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.”

 

We will keep navigating through life clueless if we don’t revive our prayer altars.
That’s where the instructions come from.
So many persons do not know what God wants them to do/be for Him, well, go back to rekindling the fire on your prayer altar and God can speak to you clearly with His instructions for your life.

Wisdom is gotten in Him and if you will stay diligent to being in Him like Jesus was/is you will get details on your life/assignment too.

So we may be asking Jesus right now, how can I be a man/woman of prayer like you?

Our job keeps us busy…
Ministry keeps me working round the clock…
Work keeps me trapped with nothing else to do but fall into bed knackered each day..

Jesus would say look at my life:
I had the sick and demon possessed constantly thronging and begging for my attention, my heart was broken to see them without help but still I knew that without my prayer back bone I would crumble.

I often withdrew to solitary places to pray because I knew that PRAYER IS NON-NEGOTIABLE IN MY LIFE and you need to settle this in your heart first. If you do, you will stop seeing it as something you can do later – a later that never comes.

YOU TOO CAN WITHDRAW TO LONELY PLACES TO PRAY.

 

Your lonely place for this season may be your toilet, it may be your kitchen, it may be your lunch hour at that cafe… but Jesus is saying that you can withdraw.
If He did it, then grace is available from Him for us to do it too.

 

Prayer:
Lord Jesus I have seen just how much prayer was and still is a huge part of your life.
You give grace to the weak. I want to be like you. I also want to be a man/woman of prayer.
Breathe life on my prayer life again. Pour out afresh upon me the Spirit of supplication.
Give me eyes to see the times that can be my lonely place spent with you.
Thank you Jesus, in Jesus name I have prayed, amen.

 

Remember our anchor verse for these studies on Jesus we are delving into:

“[For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly],…’
-Philippians 3:10, AMP

 

As you go through each week, pray:
Holy Spirit highlight an attribute of Jesus’ person to me afresh. Let me see Jesus in new light again, in Jesus name, amen.

 

What aspect/character/attribute of Jesus have you been falling in love with lately?
Please comment below, let’s learn/glean from you too.

 

Till our next Online Bible Study,
Love,
Frances