“Jesus was intensely committed to prayer because this loving presence of the Father was His very life. He told His disciples, “I live because of the Father” (John 6:57) – and prayer was His lifeline. This vital closeness of the Son with the Father is the foremost characteristic of our Savior’s prayer life. It was a closeness that found expression in His constant time alone with the Father in prayer.”
henry blackaby, experiencing prayer with jesus, p. 22.
Daily Devotionals: Ascent’s Mission – Loving God, Loving People and Impacting Our World. Each day’s devotional will guide us through a scriptural thought based on the mission God has called us to follow.
We spent last week focusing on the first part of our mission, Loving God. We turn this week to the second part of our mission: Loving People.
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Engage the Word: Loving People
Read Mark 6:40-46
40 So they sat down in groups, by hundreds and by fifties. 41 And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people. And he divided the two fish among them all. 42 And they all ate and were satisfied. 43 And they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. 44 And those who ate the loaves were five thousand men.45 Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. 46 And after he had taken leave of them, he went up on the mountain to pray.
Connect the Heart
In Mark 6, Jesus and his disciples went away to be alone, yet found themselves surrounded by 5,000 seeking and hungry people – and this is most likely just the headcount of the men, so there were likely many more in total. Possibly even 10,000. The crowd had heard about the miracles Jesus and His disciples were doing, and came to listen. This is the familiar story where the only food they had for all of these people were five loaves of bread and two fish. The people were not only wanting to be taught by the words of this Healer Teacher, Jesus – but they were hungry. And there were a LOT of them.
We know that Jesus and the disciples fed the 5,000 and even had twelve baskets leftover. Notice what Jesus did immediately after performing this incredible miracle and act of love. He went to a “desolate place” to be alone with His Father to pray. If you read further in your Bible, you’ll see that after He prayed, He went out and walked on the Sea of Galilee as the disciples futilely rowed against the wind – and then He calmed the storm. Another act of love and power.
Jesus was very busy. He was going from place to place caring for people – healing the sick, feeding thousands of people, calming storms, training disciples – and yet, even He needed to get away from others and get alone with His Father to pray. A key part of His life of love for people was His prayer life – getting alone time with His Father.
Reflect on the Truth
- You also are most likely very busy. How is your heart – your words, your actions, your desires, your motivations – recognizing the need to slow down and commune with God, even in the midst of the busyness? Even as you look for ways to love others – do you, like Jesus, prioritize times alone in “desolate places” to pour out your heart to God?
- Jesus is a model for us. He is fully God – and yet also fully man, and showed us by example the importance of getting alone with God. Take a few moments to think about and reflect on what might be taking a higher place of priority in your life than it should, in essence crowding out what should be of utmost importance – time alone with God.
Depend on the Spirit
Ask the Holy Spirit to help you see the deeper longings, desires or motives in your heart that these thoughts are pointing to. (For example: you may write down, “O Father in heaven, I’m so busy, I can’t imagine where I’d find the margin to pray more. And I know I’m called to find margin to express love to people as well… I need your help.”) The Lord can help us discern the path forward – through His word, His Spirit, His people.
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For Prayer
As you conclude your devotional time, pray for those in our church family who are struggling with health issues, challenging physical limitations, difficult diagnoses, looming treatment and rehabilitation protocols and other difficulties. There are too many to name specifically here, but the Lord knows their names. Thank you for lifting them up in prayer.
Fasting
Please read the first blog post entitled “Why Fast?” This explains what fasting is and why we follow Jesus in this spiritual discipline as together we seek the heart of God.
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Some parts of our 21 Days devotionals are adapted using various resources on scripture and prayer like The Bible Exposition Commentary, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, The New Bible Commentary, Logos Bible Software and other resources.
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