He rose early to pray

The gospel today says that after a long day healing people and doing God’s work, Jesus rose very early to pray…

Rising very early before dawn, he left 
and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed.

This got my attention, because personally, waking up in the morning is one of the challenges in my life. I really find it difficult to wake up in the morning – three alarms can’t wake me up. Even a group of people playing cranium can’t wake me up. This is why what Jesus did struck me. After being tired doing God’s work, he woke up early to pray. He did not just sleep on it, knowing that he was doing God’s work anyway, and he deserves a little more rest. Jesus woke up early and prayed.

I believe this is very important. We need to strengthen our prayer life to get closer to God, to get to know him more. We need to put priority on this, even if it is not easy to. If we start, and continue, to do difficult things for God, we know that it is not just us working – it is God working through us and changing us to become more like the person he intended us to be. When we think and know that our human nature cannot do it, yet we still continue to do it, we know that it is God at work.

Do I want to know God more, and build a more intimate relationship with him? Do I give specific time for prayer? Do I continue to pray even when it is hard, or do I just pray when I want to, when it is comfortable to? Do I build my schedule around God, or do I just fit him where it is free in my schedule?

May we see the importance of prayer as a way of building a more intimate relationship with God, and may we start doing things to improve our prayer life, even if it’s not easy, even if it is not comfortable for us.

God bless!