VICTORIAN VILLAGE Life Style
Chaplain’s Corner
made Him king, “He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray” (Matt. 14:23). When tempted in the garden of Gethsemane, He told the disciples, “Sit here while I pray” (Mark 14:32). In short, our Lord prayed continually and never lost heart. Sinless though He was, He modeled diligent communion with His Father; His deity did not make Him independent of the means of grace proper to humanity. Indeed, His very perfection was sustained through constant prayer. We ought to see in all this the immense importance of private devotion. If He who was “holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners,” thus prayed continually, how much more ought we who are compassed with infirmity? If He found it needful to offer up supplications with strong crying and tears, how much more needful is it for us, who in many things daily offend? What shall we say to those who never pray at all, in the face of such a passage as this? There are many such, it may be feared, in the list of baptized people--many who rise in the morning without prayer, and without prayer lie down at night--many who never speak one word to God. Are they Christians? It is impossible to say so. A praying Master, like Jesus, can have no prayerless servants. The Spirit of adoption will always make a man call upon God. To be prayerless is to be Christless, Godless, and on the high road to destruction. What shall we say to those who pray, yet give but little time to their prayers? We are obliged to say that they show at present very little
Now in the morning, having risen a long
while before daylight, he went out and departed to a solitary place, and there he prayed. And Simon and those who were with him searched
for him. When they found him, they said to him, “Everyone is looking for you.” Mark 1:35-37 (NKJV)
Every fact in our Lord’s life on earth, and every word which fell from His lips, ought to be deeply interesting to a faithful Christian. We see a fact and a saying in the passage we have just read, which deserve close attention. We see, for one thing, an example of our Lord Jesus Christ’s habits about private prayer. We are told that “in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, he went out and departed to a solitary place, and there he prayed.” We shall find the same thing often recorded of our Lord in the Gospel history. When He was baptized, He was “praying” (Luke 3:21 NKJV). During the transfiguration, “as He prayed, the appearance of His face was altered” (Luke 9:29). Before He chose the twelve apostles, He “continued all night in prayer to God” (Luke 6:12). When the crowds would gladly have
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