Christ’s Example
And when he had sent them away, he departed into a mountain to pray.
Mark 6:46
One of the most amazing things in all the Scriptures is how much time Jesus spent in prayer. He had only three years of public ministry, yet Jesus was never too hurried to spend hours in prayer. He prayed before every difficult task confronting Him. He prayed with regularity—not a day began or closed on which He did not unfold His soul before His Father.
How quickly and carelessly, by contrast, we pray. Snatches of memorized verses are hastily spoken in the morning; then we say good-bye to God for the rest of the day, until we rush through a few closing petitions at night.
This is not the prayer program that Jesus outlined. Jesus pleaded long and repeatedly. It is recorded that He spent entire nights in fervent appeal.
How little perseverance and pleading we show. Some time ago the newspapers told of a man in Washington who spent seventeen years securing favorable action on a claim of $81,000 against the government. Yet many people will not pray seventeen minutes for the welfare of their own immortal souls or the salvation of other people.
The Scripture says, “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). This should be the motto of every true follower of Jesus Christ. Never stop praying, no matter how dark and hopeless your case may seem. Some years ago, a woman wrote me that she had pleaded for ten years for the conversion of her husband, but that he was more hardened than ever. I advised her to continue to plead.
Some time later I heard from her again. She said her husband was gloriously and miraculously converted in the eleventh year of her prayer vigil. That’s what it means to “pray without ceasing.”
Who have you prayed for lately?
Our Father and our God, hear my prayer. I have prayed often to You about my problems, and I come again comitting them to You. And I will continue to do so, because I believe that You will hear me and grant my plea—in Your perfect time and in Your perfect way. I pray this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).