Prayer: Last or First Thing?

And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. 

Mark 1:35

F.B. Meyer, the author of, The Secret of Guidance said, "The great tragedy of life is not unanswered prayer, but un-offered prayer. Instead of it being something we do everyday, like breathing, eating and walking and talking, it seems to have become like that little glass covered box on the wall that says, "break in case of emergency." Sad to say but it is true that so very often we associate prayer with crises in our life.

Prayer was the first thing Jesus did, “early” in the morning. It was the most important thing He did because Jesus believed that everything else He would do later in the day would be determined by this.

In Mark 1:29 following we see that Jesus had been ministering to people at Simon’s house until very late the night before. People were crowding in. Everyone probably assumed that He would continue this successful ministry there. But as we read here, He didn’t. After His disciples found Him, Jesus said in 1:38, “Let us go somewhere else, to the towns nearby, so that I may preach there also, for that is what I came for.” Jesus did NOT do what everybody thought He would. After He spent time with the Father, He got the specific direction that they were to move on instead.

This is one of the reasons why we need to spend time with God first thing in the day because our time with God will change everything else we do that day.

Paul reminds us in Ephesians 6 that we are in a spiritual battle every day: “our struggle is not against flesh and blood …”. So we are to put on the spiritual armor of God, and PRAY.

Now, let me ask you a simple question? When do you put your armor on? Is it before you go in to a battle, or after? BEFORE, right? So we need to spend time with God BEFORE we go into the battles of the day; to put our “armor” on for the day; to pray for the people we love who will be facing the battles of the day, and to get God’s leadership and direction and power for the day.

This was David’s practice. We see that in Psalm 5:3 where David “In the morning O LORD, You will hear my voice; in the morning I will order my prayer to You …”. It was David’s commitment that God would hear his voice every morning and it needs to be our commitment too. Give God the first place in your life every day, by giving Him the very first part of your day.

The verse for our meditation also tells us that Jesus considered the place of prayer also to be important. Today I have heard many parents complaining that children are not ready to switch of the television or mobiles even during prayer time. They keep it on silent mode. 

Jesus was relentless about His time with the Father. He had a horrendous schedule here in Mark 1. Can you imagine how late He had been up the night before, with all those people coming to Simon’s house so He could heal them? But as late as He stayed up, He still made time to get out and be with His Father first thing in the morning.

Smart phones and social media can be a good thing: especially in the condition that we are when we are asked to stay at home, this is the only means to be able to keep in touch with people both here and around the country. Though this is a necessity today it is quite natural for us to get so caught up in the phone, or the media, that we neglect our relationships with our Lord.

Dear Friends it is also possible to get all caught up in the techniques of “Bible study”, or following the right outline or prayer, or the mechanics of the daily devotional time, and neglect what we are really there for in the first place: i.e to meet with the Person of God Himself! 

This Lenten Season none of us have to go for work and many of us have taken into binge watching  sitcoms or movies. But each and every morning our Lord is waiting to have a conversation with Him. Are we ready?

God Bless You.