Solitude With God: Jesus as our role model

A while back I did an analysis on how I spent my time and how a few people I knew spent each day generally. We all have 24 hours in a day. On average, let’s say we all sleep for 8 hours and we all spend about 8 hours at work. So that leaves us with 8 hours for every other thing. So let’s give an average of one hour each for sitting in traffic, to and from work, leaving us with 6 hours. And further give ourselves like 2 hours for the times we just sit eating or cooking or finding food to eat. With this, we now have like 4 hours basically to do anything with. To read the bible, to watch TV, to read a book, etc. I realized that, out of these 4 hours, most people I know including myself for a while spent about 3 and a half hours watching unproductive TV and just about 30 minutes reading the Bible or praying or generally spending time with God. 30 minutes oo, some people actually go without the 30 minutes the whole day. Like absolutely nothing, or no time with our father and of course with the excuse being I’m busy. LOL!

Please if we fall within this category then, it’s high time we made some few changes. Can we try and have more time for God within each day. I’m not saying sit with God for two straight hours because some people don’t have that kind of attention span but can we ensure that we incorporate our fellowship with God through-out our daily activities. Can we give more time to talk to God and to hear from Him? When we wake from our sleep, what is the first thing our attention goes to? On our ways to and from work, what kind of music do we listen to? During our breaks, how much time do we spend on social media, checking up on other people’s lives when we need to check on our own lives from God. When we close from work, what do we give our attention to, to help us de-stress or relax, and before we finally go to bed, do we say a little prayer or we fall asleep behind our TV’s completely forgetting to fellowship and spend a bit of time with our father.

My brother and sister, if you are a Christian and can’t confidently say that we are able to spend more time with God, given all these time slots then we really need some introspection. We need to re-calibrate our activities and put in more time to spend with God. This brings us to our topic for today.

40 days of fast

Our model of Solitude with the father is Jesus Christ. In every step he took, he always made time to spend and fellowship with the father. Whenever he was about to do something major, He always found time alone to fellowship and spend with the father. This shows that as humans, who want and need to live God’s ordained plans for our lives we really need to fellowship with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

From Matthew 4:1-11, we see that Jesus Christ fasted 40 days and 40 nights. This included fasting, prayer, fellowship with God and his word. Therefore when the tempter came to tempt him, he had serious ammunition with the word, confidence and certainty in the power of God and His promises. In Mark 1:12, it says that during this time, angels came and helped Jesus in the face of wild animals who were also there. He never gave in to the temptations of the devil but stood very firm in faith and faced any obstacle, both spiritual and physical. Time spent with God is never wasted. The supernatural is revealed when we spend time with God. We are empowered by the Holy Spirit when we spend time with God. Battles are won (like Jesus defeated the devil) when we spend time with God in fellowship, Bible study and prayer and our spirit man is buffed up, strengthened when we spend time with God. Hallelujah!

Another very important point to note is that Jesus began his Ministry right after spending time with his father. 40 days and 40 nights fasting. It’s as if the devil knew that Jesus was coming to do something important. The devil is always looking for ways to sway us from God’s plan and purpose for our lives so note that no matter how long you pray or stay in the presence of God, the devil will always bring up ways to turn your heart and mind from the big move you are about to make. Therefore as believers, it is imperative that we get more and more grounded in the word and be watchful and circumspect at the advances of the devil. God has given us power to always overcome him but if you don’t know the word and are filled with fear, he can use a very small thing to push us away from our God given goal and plan.

As believers before we make any major move in our lives, we have to spend time with God. Any life changing move requires our spending time with our Father who intricately formed us in our mother’s womb in his image and likeness fearfully and wonderfully. Ephesians 2:10 says that, “for we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them”. We are God’s masterpiece and we were created and designed, set-apart for greater works which He, our father has already ordained and prepared before-hand that we should do and walk in. Therefore in the next phases and steps of our lives, why not seek the face of the master in solitude, alone, burying our head in His word because really, He has all the answers.

Father Lord, today we choose to trust you every step of the way and in every move we make. Please lead us always. Amen!

Time alone in between Miracles

Matthew 14:13-32. I remember reading this particular part of this chapter and meditating on it over and over again for so long. Funny thing is, it wasn’t the fact that Jesus fed the 5000 with the 5 loaves of bread or two fish that I was deeply moved by. Neither was it the fact that Jesus walked on the water to his disciples especially considering the distance of the boat in comparison to the land. It was the number of hours that Jesus spent by himself alone to fellowship with His father. The Bible doesn’t say the exact time Jesus said his last good byes to the 5000 but it says that it was in the evening when he went up to the mountain by himself to pray. Evening here can be around roughly 6/7 pm. Additionally, the bible says that in the fourth watch of the night, some versions say “between three and six o’clock in the morning” Jesus went to his disciples walking on water. When this is calculated roughly, this shows that Jesus spent about 10 hours alone in between these two miracles communing with his Father.

He didn’t say that because he was the son of God and he knew it, he didn’t need any time with His Father. Neither did he say that because he had received the baptism of the Holy Spirit in as grand a way as his he had t, there was no need for fellowship. No!!! He always always found time to spend with God. Someone could have said that he was too busy doing his father’s work, catering to the needs of over 5000 people so he had no need for this solitude with the father. But Jesus, the almighty, all powerful spent about 10 hours, 10 mighty hours, that’s like a whole working day with his father. Why won’t he be able walk on water, calm the storms, heal the sick, cast out demons and perform all the miracles that he did? All these are available for us when we spend time with God.

One would say that, how can I with all my busy schedule: work, family, school etc. be able to do this? Another would say that Jesus was able to do it because it was Jesus and because he was the son of God. All these questions and comments are quite valid, truly valid. But let’s pause and look at all the time we spend on our social media, all the time we spend watching TV, Netflix, DSTV, Telenovelas, general entertainment and add up the time within a day. In all honesty, don’t we spend more than 3 or 4 or even 5 hours on all these things that we claim entertain us and help get our minds off our problems. So how is Jesus’ 10 hours so surprising.

If we’re able to spend our time on all these things, how and why can’t we spend a bit more time with God? Why can’t we spend an extra hour or two of our social media, Netflix or DSTV time on studying the word of God and communing with God through prayer? Why can’t we use this time to be silent in the presence of God and listen to him speak sweet sweet words to us. Someone would say they use YouTube and TV to listen to Bible messages from other preachers. That is well and good and has its own place but nothing beats our own direct fellowship with the Father and He quickening His scriptures to us through the Holy Spirit. Believers have to come to a point of complete reliance on the Holy Spirit for understanding of the word instead of relying only on messages from Pastors for understanding of the word. We are all children of God and he speaks to us, although the ability to hear depends on our closeness to Him. So why not draw closer to God.

Father Lord, please help us focus on you, pay attention to you and look to you more than we look to all the other things and distractions around us. Amen!

Morning Prayers

Please remember that as Christian’s our role model is the master Himself, Jesus Christ. So He is the one person that we should and must strive to be like in word and deed. Mark 1:35 says, “Very early the next morning, long before daylight, Jesus got up and left the house. He went out of town to a lonely place, where he prayed”. Some versions say, “Early in the morning, while it was still dark”, Jesus went to pray. As a child of the king, as a joint heir with Christ and as a Christian, how do you start your day? How do you face the day ahead with all activities ahead and all the physical and spiritual battles ahead? Please note that once you are a child of God, you will definitely face battles.

We give so many excuses about how stressed and busy we are with everything around us. Trust me, I have given my fair share of excuses. Ranging from that fact that I had a long day the previous day, to that fact that I didn’t sleep early or I slept late feeling tired, or the fact that I have to rush out to work in the morning etc. Jesus, if He wanted to had more excuses than our present day excuses. As a child of God, he had the whole world on his shoulders, literally! For example, the night before this particular morning, in Vs 32-34 of Mark 1, after the sun had set, that is around 6:17-6:30 pm, people brought to Jesus all the sick and those who had demons. All the people gathered in front of the house and you can imagine the number of people there. The passage didn’t say that Jesus told them to go back or that they should continue later, it says that, “Jesus healed many who were sick with all kinds of diseases and drove out many demons.” So imagine how long this would have taken, very late, I imagine.

Plus throughout that whole day, Jesus moved from place to place performing all sorts of miracles, healing the sick, casting out demons etc. But can we say that because Jesus was Jesus, the son of God, he would not be tired from this, as a man in human flesh? Of course not! As I imagine, any person will be extremely exhausted from all these activities and so would Jesus Christ. My point after all this long talk is that Jesus Christ did not give excuses to rise up early, find a solitary place and spend time alone in prayer with His father regardless of his world-wide busy schedule so why should we. Sunlight is around 5:30 am so long before sunlight can be somewhere between 3-5:30 am.

After Jesus prayed within this time, he was super charged to do his Father’s work. He told his disciples in Vs 38, that they must go to the other villages and preach because that was why he came. And he did this right after praying. When we pray, we obtain strength from God, the Holy Spirit such that no matter what our physical body is saying, our spirit man takes the lead and conquers every opposition in our flesh to overcome the day.

Father Lord, thank you for the grace to wake up early and spend time with you in prayer. Holy Spirit, our helper please quicken us not to give in to the flesh to sleep but to wake up and take charge of our life and day in the spirit. Amen!

Alone time with the Father at work

I have always wondered whether it was right as a believer to hide out somewhere at work and pray especially if you worked for someone. There are several schools of thought on this. Some say that if you pray within working hours, it means you’re being unfair to the company or business as they are paying you for those hours. Others also say that it is good to find some time to pray especially during your lunch break as that time is really for you. Once again, all these are interestingly valid comments and can all be well argued but let us look at the word of God concerning this. WHAT DID OUR ROLE MODEL, JESUS DO?

First of all, let’s all agree that the work that Jesus was doing was extremely important. He literally had the whole world on His shoulders and had the mandate to share the gospel, heal the sick, perform miracles everywhere he went and note that he had a lot of ground to cover especially since they were doing this on foot. Now that the importance of Jesus work has been established let us establish the fact that prayer and communion with the father is very important and was extremely important to Jesus, throughout his life on earth. This has actually been established in previous paragraphs where we have even highlighted its importance.

Now that two variables from the three have been analysed, let us look at the third variable, the timing in light of Jesus’ life on this earth. Luke 5:15-16 says that, but the news about Jesus spread all the more widely, and crowds of people came to hear him and be healed from their diseases. But he would go away to lonely places, where he prayed.” Some versions would say, “But Jesus himself would often slip away to the wilderness to pray”, or “but Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed”. Note the key words in the versions: “go away”, “slip away”, and “withdraw”. Even after Jesus was surrounded with so much crowd, he found a way to slip away and withdraw to spend time with his Father though he enjoyed doing his father’s work.

As children of God, the point is this, wherever we find yourself, whether it is our own business, or we work for someone or we’re even unemployed, whether we enjoy our work or not or we enjoy the company around you or not, we have to find time to slip away to withdraw and spend time with our ultimate employer, our ultimate boss and master and God. However as we do this, we have to remember that in Ecclesiastes 9:10, the bible says that we should do whatever our hand finds to do with all our might. Therefore as believers, we need to find a balance. Communion with God is of course very paramount but it should be such that it allows us to give our best at our work, not causing us to miss meetings or deadlines or not doing our work within our prescribed working hours. Ask the Holy Spirit to give you balance in your work and communion with God. Remember communion with God always keeps you grounded and confident for even you work battles.

Our Lord and father, thank you for your provision always. Thank you for the blessing of the work of our hands. We thank you for the balance we have received in spending time with you and doing the best at work and everywhere we find ourselves.

These are just a few of the examples for how and when Jesus spent time alone with the Father. As we learn from Jesus Christ, I pray spending time with God becomes more priority that it already is.