Something that stuck out to me in my dad's sermon today was kind of a review of my praying without ceasing series. What stuck out to me was revealed to us in the first half of the first verse. The text this morning was Mark 3:13-19. The verse that stuck out to me was verse 13: "And he [Jesus] went up on the mountain." Now this may not sound too important at a first glance, but it leads to a few questions (at least for me). My first question is - why did Jesus go up on the mountain? And though Mark doesn't deem fit to tell us why, good, old Luke does, in Luke 6:12: "In these days he went out to the mountain to pray." Aha! Jesus went up to the mountain to pray. How interesting.This story in this passage is Jesus' call of the 12 apostles. But before He calls them, He prays. Another interesting thing that Luke provides in this story is included in the second half of verse twelve. It reads, "And all night He [that is, Jesus] continued in prayer to God." This was not a bang off a quick list, do a pray-and-run. This was all night. This was a good ten hours on His knees. My dad mentioned this, and it really convicted me. How often do we find it hard to spend ten minutes in prayer, let alone ten hours? We get so caught up in our busy lives that we find it difficult to make time for God. How convicting!
But let's let Jesus be our example that we shouldn't just rush through prayer, and only pray when we have a problem or a request, but everyday, all day. We need to make sure we're reviewing the command to pray without ceasing often and re-apply it to our lives.
But let's let Jesus be our example that we shouldn't just rush through prayer, and only pray when we have a problem or a request, but everyday, all day. We need to make sure we're reviewing the command to pray without ceasing often and re-apply it to our lives.