721 N. Memorial Drive, Lancaster, OH 43130 // Main Service: Sunday 9 & 11am // Movement Youth Sunday 5:30pm

Prioritizing Prayer

Today, we are continuing our journey of establishing a solid prayer life and following the way of Jesus by our obedience and total surrender. Everyone’s schedule is hectic but if something is important to us, we need to prioritize time to make that something happen. As disciples of Christ, we need to prioritize prayer. Please join me in prayer as we open our hearts to God’s word.

Father, I come to You so grateful for my salvation. I am so in awe that You want a relationship with me, and that I can come to You anytime and You are there. Father, please meet with me during this time, drawing me close to You, showing me how to adjust my daily schedule to make You the priority. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Mark 1:35 (NLT)
35 Before daybreak the next morning, Jesus got up and went out to an isolated place to pray.

Jesus’ prayer life while He was on earth is the perfect example of how we should model our own personal prayer life. As a disciple of Christ, I am aware that I need quality time alone with God and the ideal time is the early morning. When I fall asleep at night, I always ask the Father to make Him the first thing that comes to my mind when I wake in the morning. God is faithful and I always wake thinking of Him and having a desire to spend time in fellowship. This is always the plan, but I must admit that the fellowship time is sometimes short, or is more a quick prayer of, “please just get me through the day and tonight I will have more time to spend with You.” Do you struggle like me and allow a busy schedule to take you away, or keep you from spending time alone with our Father?

Prioritizing prayer time like many things in our lives can feel overwhelming. Many of us start our days packed with long lists of things to accomplish, and that does not include the unexpected requests that come along during the day. I have always struggled with time management, and I need to look to Jesus for help. Jesus chose what was best. Go to the book of Mark, then read today’s verse as well as the following verses. When the disciples woke and went looking for Jesus, they explained to Him that everyone was looking for Him, but He had other plans. Jesus was ready to move on to another town and teach. We need to look at our lives and make what might be difficult choices so that rather than choose simply how we want to spend our time, we choose the best way to spend our time. Take a moment to think back over the past week about how you spent your time. Like me, do you see where some of the choices you made could have been better?

As we close our time today, we have a responsibility as disciples of Christ, to spend time daily in private prayer. We have Jesus’ example of rising early before anyone else and going to that place where He could be alone with the Father. He realized the importance of private prayer. Please look to Jesus as the standard and go to the Father in honest prayer. Here are a couple prompts to get you started.

Ask the Father to help you prioritize your daily schedule.

Ask God to help you choose the best time for private prayer.


May you experience God’s peace and joy in your life today.

No Comments


Recent

Archive

 2024

Categories

Tags