Whenever I read and study about Jesus’ life, one thing always stands out tall for me from all the other things.

Listen:

“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.” Mark 1:35

“When Jesus heard [that John the Baptist had been beheaded], he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place.” Matthew 14:13

Don’t love that? I do!

If anything, prayer marks Jesus’ life.

While He has lots of things to do and lots of people to visit and all, Jesus makes sure that His alone time with His Father takes a number priority in His schedule.

It is not like He says, “From 8 to 9am, I will pray and for the rest of the day, I will do my own thing” kind of life.

Oh no! Prayer is His life.

What does that mean?

Spurgeon once said, “Prayer comes spontaneously from those who abide in Jesus… Prayer is the natural outgushing of a soul in communion with Jesus.”

So prayer-less-ness cannot be one of identifying characters of a true Christian because it simply cannot.

Our communion with Jesus Christ itself prompts us to pray and our prayer time is not limited by time or situations. Our intimate relationship with Him is a continuous, abounding and overflowing relationship that always results in a constant desire to talk to Him. But sometimes this “constant desire” can be buried by so many things and prayer-less life can lurk into our lives.

For example at this time, while we all are quarantined in our homes with our families because of coronavirus – nowhere to go and pretty much nothing to do except fixing something to eat, it is very easy to put our “alone time with Jesus Christ” in the back burner.

Yes all our daily routines are messed up. But as we learn from Jesus’ life, we need to strive to withdraw from our families (spouse and kids) to be alone with God.

When we make ourselves alone with God, we once again come into a realization that God is on His throne and that He is the only One who has the final word.

And this truth alone helps us to take a deep breath in and out and relax our tense neck muscles from all the bad news we daily hear on the news.

So my friends, just like Jesus, let’s not forget to look for a solitary place in our house to be alone with Jesus and the Bible. Actually let’s do this as frequently as we can so our spirit will be lifted up and flow with the truth of God, the word of God.

After all, the Bible says, “Pray without ceasing.” 1 Thessalonians 5:17 ///