Learning from Jesus' Prayer Time - Luke 5:15-16 Devotion

Luke 5:15-16

Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.
Luke 5:15-16

Scripture does not hide from us how Jesus frequently took time away to pray. And not just moments of sneaking away for a quick prayer to rejuvenate His soul. No, Jesus woke up early or stayed up through the night to spend quality time with His Father.

His circumstances did not deter Him, either. Luke makes clear how Jesus’ ministry during this time began growing at a rapid pace. Even without today’s technology, news about Him spread “all the more.” People came to see who this miracle-worker was. Who this new teacher was who spoke with such authority.

Wouldn’t it have been so very easy for Jesus to take advantage of this growing fame? With swelling pride, He could’ve booked every moment of His day with speaking, teaching and performing miracles. He could’ve used every spare moment to do every possible task that might help His ministry grow, exhausting His disciples and Himself — but it would’ve all been for God’s glory, right?

Instead of this human logic of taking the road to success, Jesus chose to always put His relationship with His Father first. Luke says He “often” withdrew to lonely places to pray.

“Often” does not sound like only when it was convenient for Jesus. It also doesn’t sound like this occurred every once in a while, or even maybe once a week after He caught up on sleep. While we don’t have a specific number — and a specific number should never be the point — “often” implies that this time of prayer was most likely a very regular time for Jesus and His Father.

“Withdrew” tells us He had to remove Himself from situations where people most likely wanted Him to stay.

But He knew time with His Father was too important. Praying was too important to push it aside until convenience allowed for it. It was too important to allow distraction.

Jesus stepped away from the distractions, He carved out time regardless of His busy schedule, and He prayed.

How the Spirit must have encouraged Him in those hours of prayer! Imagine how God the Father overflowed love and joy and peace to Jesus His Son during those precious times of communication!

Do we treat our time with God as precious like this? Are we willing to ensure our schedules — no matter how busy we are — reflect that our first priority is spending time with God our Savior?

There are always more things to do. Exhaustion will always plague us in some form or fashion. Screens will always tempt us.

Choose time with God instead (This devotional HERE is for you if you need help finding time with God in the midst of the busy). Withdraw from it all. Go to a lonely place and pray. Set aside the screaming agendas and choose to rest with God. If Jesus thought this important enough to withdraw from His ministry and His disciples, then surely we can acknowledge nothing is too important to cause us to set aside this time.

Time with God is not simply the “right” Christian thing to do. God desires this time with us. We grow in relationship with Him, falling more in love with Jesus, as we choose to spend time with our Father.

And on top of those wonderful reasons, God also desires to strengthen and equip us through this time.

So let us sit down with our Heavenly Father and find the rest and peace we need to face each day, no matter our circumstances.

If Jesus thought it important, then surely so should we.

Reflection Questions

What do we learn about God from this passage?
Why was it important to Jesus to take time to pray even though He is God Himself?
How will you find joy in your everyday through what you’ve learned in this passage?