Quiet Time With God

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.

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 obvio us 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 cameWe 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.