Seeking Passionate Prayer in Spiritual Warfare

As we seek to spend time with God, who better to look at as our example than Jesus? During His life on earth, Jesus limited the exercise of His divine powers. Although fully God, He depended on the Father and the indwelling Spirit working through Him. That dependence was demonstrated by the way Jesus sought time alone with His Father. The Gospels record multiple times when Jesus left the crowds and His followers behind for solitary communion with the Father.

Mark 1:32–39 records one such occurrence. A closer look at the text shows the importance and impact of our Lord’s own devotional life and what we can learn from it. “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed” (1:35).

After a long evening of healing sick and demon-possessed people (1:29–34), Jesus actively made time to commune with God. I believe Christ used this time to regain His spiritual center.

Our Distractions and God’s Directions

“Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed: ‘Everyone is looking for you!’ Jesus replied, ‘Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.’” (1:36-38)

The word found in verse 37 could be translated “hunted down.” Thinking they knew best how Jesus should spend His day, Peter and his friends sought Him out. They were willing to interrupt the Lord’s prayer time with their own urgent concerns: “Everyone is looking for you!”

But Jesus didn’t worry about being perceived as unresponsive or uncaring. Did His quiet time make Him less sensitive to the people near Him? Just the opposite. It seems that as a result of His time alone with the Father, Jesus desired to continue with His larger mission: “to seek and to save what was lost” (Luke 19:10). Meeting only the needs of those directly in front of Him would have been to ignore God’s concern for all who are lost. Jesus’ resolve was solidified after His time with the Father.

Jesus used His time alone with God for meaningful fellowship as well as for strength and direction to carry on with His mission. If we desire the same results from our time alone with God, we need to follow Jesus’ example and apply God’s Word in the power of the Spirit, letting it influence not just what we do but to change the very people we are.

If time alone with God is seen as a once-a-day spiritual oasis or as merely something to be checked off our “to do” list, we may fall into the trap of separating our spiritual life from the rest of our life. That’s a subtle mistake we need to avoid. Time with God is our spiritual lifeline. From the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:8) until now, God has desired to walk with His people in every part of life’s journey.