Luke 5:16
And he withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed.
It is no secret that the power of Christ’s ministry occurred because of the time in prayer He spent with the Father. When Jesus started His ministry, He spent forty days and nights fasting and praying. Throughout His ministry, you will see that Jesus withdrew Himself to a place alone so that He could spend time in prayer. The fact that Jesus had to withdraw Himself means that something was happening, but there was something more important for Him to attend to than what was happening around Him.
The verse above says that Jesus withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed. From what did Jesus withdraw Himself? He withdrew from the great crowds that followed Him. He withdrew from the fame to be alone in humility to be with the Father in prayer. Jesus could have easily gotten caught up in the crowds following Him, but He understood the importance of withdrawing Himself to pray so that He could help those crowds. He could have gotten caught up in His fame, but He understood that fame only leads to pride if you don't withdraw yourself into an alone place to pray.
It is interesting that Jesus did not withdraw Himself into a house, but into the wilderness. Why the wilderness? Jesus chose the wilderness because that was a place where He could be alone so nobody would follow Him. It is what Jesus taught about how to pray in Matthew 6:6 when He says, But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet,… Had Jesus not practiced withdrawing Himself to pray, we would not see the great miracles that followed His ministry.
Life has a way of getting so busy that you often do not find time to pray. However, nobody finds time to pray, but they purposely withdraw themselves from the crowded schedule of life to pray. Everyone is busy, but you must never be too busy to pray. There must be times in your life when you purposely lay everything down to get alone to pray. You say, “But preacher, I just don't have the time to pray.” My friend, when you are too busy to pray is when you must withdraw yourself to pray so that you can handle the busyness of life.
Moreover, don't let the happenings of the ministry and life keep you from spending time in prayer. It is easy to get busy in the ministry, but when you are so busy in the ministry that you don't take time to pray, is when you have become too busy. It is not that you need to do less in the ministry; it is that you need to take time apart to pray to handle the busyness of the ministry. The ministry will tear you apart spiritually if you don't withdraw yourself apart from life to pray. Those who found themselves in sin have often been too busy to pray.
Furthermore, always find an alone place to pray so that pride does not take over your life. Find yourself a closet or wilderness, a place where nobody can bother you, to pray. Lay down technology and schedule and get so alone with God that nothing can hinder you as you pray. You must lay life down on purpose to get alone to pray. It is those who spend alone time in prayer with God that find the power and miracles of God following their lives and ministry.
Do you find your soul winning and ministry missing something? What you miss when your schedule gets so crowded is that time that you withdraw yourself to pray. You must purposely withdraw yourself if you will find time alone to pray.
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