Time Alone With God

“In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there.” (Mk. 1:35).

As we read throughout the Gospels, not only did Christ teach the importance of prayer, He modeled it. Puritan, Lewis Bayly, understood our Lord’s words well: “As soon as ever thou wakest in the morning, keep the door of thy heart fast shut, that no earthly thought may enter, before that God come in first; and let him, before all others, have the first place there… Begin, therefore, everyday’s work with God’s word and prayer.” - The Practice of Piety, Lewis Bayly

While play, leisure, and celebration are all important aspects of renewal, spending time in communion with God is supremely more important. Time devoted to God produces changes- changes in us if we engage in them and changes in people around us. We will see people differently. We will approach problems differently and feel different about our day’s work, our studies, our families, and our future.

Recognizing my sin, I am often prone to half-hearted devotion to my Savior. I sometimes find myself lazy and careless toward prayer. The devil, unfortunately, is not lazy or careless. He seeks to thwart the believer and stifle his walk in sanctification. The Lord calls us to remain vigilant: “Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." (Matt. 26:41, Lk. 21:36).

The Lord, through His Spirit, helps us to overcome this sin of apathy. The believer finds his hope towards this foundational building block of renewal in Philippians 2:13. “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”

Abandoning our selfish inclination to keep our eyes shut, may we run into the presence of God with a hungry eagerness of hopeful expectation. And let our experience be that of Donald S. Whitney who said, “The imprint of his words on our thoughts and the heartprint of His presence upon our souls stoke the fires of our affection for God and the things of God so that they burn long after the meeting of the morning.” - Private Worship, Donald S. Whitney