Having Quiet Time With God
As Jesus moved forward with his ministry the pressure must have grown even greater and greater.
The crowd must have grown bigger and bigger.
We know after Jesus’ first healing experience in the temple that his reputation spread through out the countryside.
That must have brought people from everywhere.
The lepers, the outcast, the lame and the blind.
All the hopeless of society.
The press of hurting people must have been overwhelming at times.
Imagine most of the citizens of Capernaum gathered at the front door waiting for a healing touch.
One thing for sure in this part of Mark’s Gospel is the healing power of Jesus.
Jesus shows us his healing power.
And he heals with authority.
As we read about these healing miracles we may ask ourselves a question.
Is this our experience with sickness and healing?
"Why doesn’t this sort of healing occur when we bring our sick family and friends to him?"
We don’t ask that question out loud much do we?
We tend to hide the question by saying to ourselves, "I must not have enough faith."
"Or it must not be God’s will."
When we pray for a sick friend or relative and that person doesn’t get better do we find ourselves more then a little disappointed?
I struggle with the answers to those questions.
And I wish I had an answer for you but unfortunately I don’t.
We read these healing stories in Mark and don’t we all wish we had access to that same healing power today?
I still don’t understand.
And I ask God to help me understand.
But one thing we all know for sure.
No matter how dismal things may seem, no matter how many questions we may have, God is not far from us.
And with God nearby what do we have to be afraid of.
We all have busy lives.
Things of the world that occupy our time and our resources.
There is often a lot of demand for our time.
And we know there was also a lot of demand for Jesus’ time and attention.
And because of that even Jesus needed time alone.
It is obvious that Jesus prayed.
Even he needed time to speak with his father.
It was important that Jesus had time alone in order for him to reconnect with his power source.
It was important that Jesus be alone so that he could recharge his batteries.
You see Jesus had no power on his own to heal anyone.
His power came directly from God and I think it was during these times of quiet prayer that Jesus replenished his power.
In his human nature Jesus felt the same emotions you and I feel.
He could feel our pain and our failure, our worries and our disappointment but he never lost faith in his Father’s love and strength.
He knew he could always count on it.
If Jesus understood how important it was to be alone with God, how can we not do that same thing.
You see Jesus offers us a model.
A model of how to handle the pressures and disappointments of life.
We see that Jesus was able to handle the pressures of his ministry because he had a strong prayer life.
Jesus took time out of his busy schedule to talk with God.
We read in our scripture how Jesus had a habit of getting up early to spend time alone with God in a deserted place.
Away from everyone and everything.
He always found a time and a place to be alone with his Father.
Jesus accepted God for who he was, his Father, his power source.
All too often we want God the way we want him, on our terms.
We sometimes may even want a get even God.
A God of anger and revenge to satisfy our own selfish desire for anger and revenge.
Too often we would like a Santa Claus God.
Someone to fulfill some personal desire for something we want but do not necessarily need.
But Jesus shows us a God that is nothing like that.
He shows us a God that is totally different from all those false gods the world has known.
And this was a God that Jesus was in close relationship with.
We get a close look at Jesus own tender relationship with his Father.
We see Jesus going off by himself to pray and draw close to his Father.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to see Jesus pray.
To see how he prayed.
To see his display of love for his father.
That special love between a Son and his Father.
How did Jesus pray?
Did he pray like we do or was his prayer different?
We know that the disciples wanted to know how to pray.
They came right out and ask him, "Lord why don’t you teach us how to pray the way John taught his disciples how to pray."
What did Jesus tell them?
His answer was sort of surprising.
Jesus said, "When you pray, go to your room and lock your door and pray to your heavenly Father in secret. He who knows what is secret will listen to you."
As God’s own children we are in a unique and very special position.
We have the privilege of knowing that God is ready to take care of us.
He’s there when we need help.
He’s there when we need comfort.
He’s there when we need strength.
God is always there to help us through the troubles of life.
But you know what, we are almost comical sometimes.
All too often we try to take on life on our terms and under our control.
We actually think we can somehow control our life and change our own destiny.
Imagine this picture.
I have two tons of stones that I have to move across this big field.
I have a good friend who is waiting on the edge of the field waiting for me to toss the stones in the back of his truck so he can carry them across the field for me.
In fact he even has a front end loader that I can use to load the stones in the truck.
Now my friend doesn’t just have any old truck.
He has this big huge diesel with tandem wheels and a 500 horsepower engine.
And it can carry over four tons of load.
It is all warmed up and ready to go.
All I have to do is load the stones in the back of the truck.
But now I also have an old wheelbarrow in the barn.
You probably have one too.
The tire is flat, one of the handles is almost broken, and the bottom is rusted through.
It is hard to push it in a straight line because it keeps pulling to one side.
So I stand there looking at the truck and the wheelbarrow thinking about both options.
And I say I’ll take the wheel barrow because then I will be in complete control.
Everyday all of us make a decision almost as ridiculous as that.
We make the decision to carry life’s load all by ourselves.
We make the decision to depend on our own abilities, our own understanding and our own strength, rather then rely on God.
All too often we choose the broken down wheelbarrow over the high powered truck.
All too often we rely upon our own effort and power.
When we should be relying on God’s power.
I’m not talking about turning God into a Magic Gene in a bottle.
You see when we come to God only when we want something or need something that is what we are in effect doing, turning him into a magic gene.
We are using him to play let’s make a wish.
God is not some power we can manipulate.
He is not there to be used only when we choose to.
He doesn’t respond just because we say the right words or have the right kind of thoughts.
He is the God of the Bible.
The God of power and might.
And the God of love and compassion.
And He comes to us out of his love for us.
The authentic care of God comes from the blessing that takes place when we completely surrender our life to Him.
Allowing the Holy Spirit to be our guide and our counselor.
Making Jesus the true Lord and master of our life.
The Lords burden is light.
"Come to me all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
Our burden can be very heavy, but the Lord allows us to unload it on him, but only if we choose to do so.
And how do we share that burden?
We share that burden through prayer.
Jesus spent quiet time with his Father in order to draw upon God’s power.
To bring his life back into order.
We must do the same.
We must spend quiet time with God in prayer to draw upon his power, to unload our worldly burden.
It is during our quiet time with God that we are able to understand what is happening in our life.
It is during our quiet time with God, if we listen real close, we are able to hear His voice.
Mark 1:29-39
Quiet time with God.
We see today that even Jesus needed quiet time with God.
If we think we face a lot of pressure in life.
Can you imagine the pressure that Jesus must have experienced?
He was faced with masses of people every day.
People that had needs.
People that were hurting.
