"And He withdrew from them about a stone's throw, and
He knelt down and began to pray, saying, "Father, if You are willing,
remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done." Now an angel
from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him." (Luke 22:41-43 NASB)
For the
believer, prayer should be the simplest thing we do in life. Yet, we can easily make prayer more
complicated than it should be.
Prayer is
necessary for our lives and yet it gets pushed to the bottom of the list, left
for the end of the day and many times forgotten altogether until necessity
demands otherwise.
Prayer is
one of the most important ways we communicate with God and so it's necessary
for our lives that we pray often and we pray without hesitation.
The often
repeated quote by a great man of God, Smith Wigglesworth has been a favorite of
mine when he said, “Most days I never pray more than 10 minutes but I also
rarely go 10 minutes without praying!”
I have
always liked that quote because it paints a picture of his prayer life which was more connected and ever-aware of God with
him and in him wherever he was and whatever he was doing.
Prayer is
active communication with God more than it is a compartmentalized amount of
time set in our scheduled day. I
will say it’s
important to have both active in our life. Make sure you set a specific time each day to spend in
prayer with God and also keep yourself open to be actively speaking with Him
throughout your day.
There is
a passage in Luke which is so simple and when we consider the revelation
available from the verses we see a brilliant picture of how Jesus communicated with
God while He was on earth.
The first
part of the verses says "And He
withdrew from them about a stone's throw, and He knelt down and began to
pray...”
Notice Jesus
withdrew about a "stone's throw away...” It's important that we get
away from the noise and busyness of life when we pray; we need to quiet
ourselves and settle down when we pray.
However, notice Jesus was only a stone's throw away. We aren't supposed to remove ourselves
from the situation we're praying over or remove ourselves from life
completely. We are simply supposed
to step aside for a moment while we get clarity and strength from Heaven. Is there a specific issue you're
praying about? Don't walk away
from the situation, don't retreat in defeat. No, step aside for a moment while you receive wisdom and the
answers you need from God through prayer.
No matter
what situations or circumstances may look like God has the best for the
situation and He knows your way forward. This is how we should approach God
when we pray. We know He has the
best for our lives, we know from His word that He has pre-ordained good things
for you and I to live out. So when
we pray we should be seeking His will and His plans above what we think is
best.
Finally
we see the immediate response to Jesus’ prayer from Heaven. "...Now an
angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him." Because Jesus got quiet before
Heaven, He humbled Himself before God and gave God control over the situation;
God honored Him and sent His angel to strengthen Jesus for what was going to
happen next.
Keep In
Mind These 3 Simple Keys to Prayer
1.)
Go get still and quiet before God but don’t forget He is with you everywhere and you can talk to him
wherever you are, sharing your day with Him.
2.)
Don’t try
and force an answer you want or think is best. Listen for His plan and look for
his wisdom to come to your heart about those things that are happening around
you.
3.)
Take your strength from His presence for the situation at hand. Jesus came that
you might have life and that more abundantly. Take and receive plenty of help,
strength and peace in the presence of the one who is more than enough and
supplies your every need!
I call
you blessed,
~
Jen
