24^th October 2009

Luke 6:12

"And He continued all night in prayer to God."

Why did Jesus have to pray?
After all He was the Son of God.
All of God's resources were available to Him.
After His temptation "angels came and attended Him."
He said, "He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone."

Perhaps Jesus did not go to the mountain top
to place before the Father his personal and the world's needs.
For Jesus prayer was the spontaneous expression
of His oneness with the Father.
I like to think that all He expected
was to be in the Father's presence.
Being the Son of God, and looking into the face of the Father
would be joy and fulfillment for Jesus
as He looked down on a needy, world.

In our praying, first we need to enter,
and be conscious of the Father's presence,
before we even say a word.
Is this what Jesus meant when He said,
"Go into your room, close the door
and pray to the Father who is unseen?"

Our being in His presence and feeling His love and peace
is a wonderful joy in itself,
then our praying becomes focused.

Too often our asking becomes a barrier to true praying.
We need to understand that we should
not pray for praying's sake.
God has made us in such a way that praying
is a natural pathway into His presence and not a barrier.