Immediately He made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, to Bethsaida, while He dismissed the crowd. And after He had taken leave of them, He went up on the mountain to pray.
Mark 6:45
One big challenge in being a Christian is making time for to be a Christian. School, sports, work, family, leisure, and life all seem to conspire to squeeze God out of our lives and out of our consciousness. This is why it is critical that we are deliberate in making time for God. Christ showed us in His earthly ministry an example of intentionally taking time to pray, to be with His Father. After the miracle of the five loaves and two fish feeding five thousand people, which came at the end of a long day of preaching and healing, He sent His disciples on ahead of Him and having left the crowd, He went up on the mountain to pray, alone. Even the Son of God needed to recharge Himself spiritually in prayer.
Before all the important events of His life, we find Jesus praying. Before His public ministry began, He withdrew for forty days of prayer and fasting, during which He was tempted by the devil. This is actually important to note. Jesus’ attempt at solitude was interrupted by the devil and temptation. When we pray, many times we will also feel distracted, perhaps even tempted, to abandon prayer and fall prey to sin. This is because just as God is a force for good in our lives and in our world, the devil is a force of evil in both. Even as we go to be with God in prayer, we will be distracted by thoughts prompted by the devil to break our union with our Lord. During those forty days, Jesus was fasting, disciplining His body, which, as a side effect, disciplines the mind. This is why prayer and fasting should work in tandem. If we can discipline our bodies to go without certain foods, then we can hopefully discipline our minds to go without certain thoughts, including the distracting ones that often come during prayer.
Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane shortly before the beginning of His Passion. This prayer was not one of comfort but one of desperation. He wanted the cup of suffering to pass. He expressed this in very human terms, sweating drops of blood, that’s how intense His emotion was. Ultimately, He surrendered to the will of God, telling the Lord that it was ultimately the will of the Lord that He would submit to. This, again, is another example of how we are to pray. We are free to express human emotions—fear, anger, disappointment, etc. God can certain handle whatever we dish out. The ultimate trust and faith, however, is found in surrender, which is where prayer should lead—for His will to be done.
Every year at summer camp, we have a time on the schedule that we call “Alone with God.” It is a fifteen-minute period of silence, where no other activity happens except prayer. There are no meetings or other competing activities for the campers or the staff. Everyone finds a quiet place to sit alone with God. I’m sure some of the people are not able to focus on prayer for the whole time, even I struggle to do that. But putting time to be physically still sets a mood where connection with God is more likely, than when we are running around multi-tasking. In fact, when I experience alone with God time, I find that I must sit still and do nothing but quiet my body and my mind, and then I can attempt to connect with God in prayer. For me it’s hard to come to a sudden stop and pray immediately. This is why when I celebrate the Divine Liturgy, I try to sit still for a few minutes, take some deep breaths, and quiet the busyness of my mind, so that I can enter into a more prayerful posture. I confess that while I’m very faithful with this surrounding a worship service, I’m less faithful to it outside of worship. There is a tendency to leap out of bed and take on the day, and forget God, who blessed me with the day.
Every morning, when I wake up naturally, with the alarm, I lay in bed for a few minutes and dedicate these first moments to God in prayer. Or at least I attempt to push out thoughts and connect with Him. Over a period of many years, I have been able to make my first thought a thankful one. I simply say “thank You God that I am alive to see another day.” When I sit up on the side of the bed, I make the sign of the cross slowly, praying the words “In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.” The thought, even with these simple words, is that I am dedicating the day to God, and asking for His blessings over the things I will do during the day. The beautiful thing about the “Alone with God” time at camp is that it is on the schedule. Away from camp, this time doesn’t make the schedule as often as it should. I’m still working on that, as well as to quiet the noises in my head that distract me from prayer.
One helpful way to keep God in our consciousness is to say the Jesus Prayer throughout the day—“Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” This simple, yet powerful prayer invokes the name of Jesus Christ, acknowledging Him as the Son of God, placing Him as Lord of our lives, and placing us as servants. It confesses our sinfulness, and at the same time both asks for and trusts in the mercies of God. Most people have more idle time than they will admit. Waiting for the computer to come on, we are at work but waiting. Waiting for copies to come out of a copy machine is work, but provides and idle moment. How it could change our lives if during some of these idle moments—waiting in line at the store, sitting at a traffic light, etc.—if we could offer the Jesus Prayer a few times. It would calm the mind, keep emotions in check and connect us with God throughout the day.
It is essential that we are deliberate in creating spaces of time throughout the day—a period of time in the morning, and short bursts throughout the day—to connect with God in prayer. I once heard a sermon where the speaker said that when we leave prayer out all day and only say something to God at night, most likely it will be something like this: “God, you know I love You. I’m tired. See you tomorrow.” We should offer the first fruits of our day to God, not the leftovers, if there are any. Prayer connects us with God, and also sets a tone for our thoughts, words and actions. This is why it is important to pray every day, so that our thoughts, words and actions reflect our identity as Christians.
Lord, thank You that I am alive to read this message today. Regardless of what may happen today, I’m thankful that I have this day, and that You have blessed me in offering it to me. Help me to be intentional about coming to You in prayer, as I begin each day, and throughout the day, especially in moments when I make important decisions. Help me to bring You into those decisions. In the moments when I am praying, help me to be still in my body and slow down my mind, so I can concentrate on You. Help me to hear Your voice in prayer and to push out the voices of distraction and temptation. Thank You for your example of prayer. Please continue to strengthen me as I try to follow it. Amen.
One of the challenges to faith is making intentional time for God. Make time to do this, and your connection with God will likely get stronger. Remember, even the Son of God took time to pray each day, especially before the important moments of His life. We should be doing the same.
