The Importance of Prayer
But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.
Luke 5:16 NIV
Jesus considered prayer more important than food, for the Bible says that hours before breakfast, “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” (Mark 1:35 NIV).
To the Son of God, prayer was more important than the assembling and the healing of great throngs. The Bible says, “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 NIV).
The precious hours of fellowship with His Heavenly Father meant much more to our Savior than sleep, for the Bible says, “Jesus went out into the hills to pray, and spent the night praying to God” (Luke 6:12 NIV).
He prayed at funerals, and the dead were raised. He prayed over the five loaves and two fishes, and fed a multitude with a little boy’s lunch. In the contemplation of His imminent suffering on Calvary’s cross He prayed, “Not my will, but yours” (Luke 22:42 NIV) and a way was made whereby sinful man might approach a holy God.
Prayer, in the true sense, is not a futile cry of desperation born of fear and frustration. Many people pray only when they are under great stress, or in danger, or facing some crisis. I have been in airplanes when an engine died, then people started praying. I have flown through bad thunderstorms when people who may never have thought to pray before were praying all around me. I have talked to soldiers who told me that they never prayed until they were in the midst of battle. There seems to be an instinct in man to pray in times of danger.
We know “there are few atheists in foxholes,” but that kind of Christianity fails to reach into our everyday lives, and it is too shallow to be genuine.
Christian teachers down through the ages have urged the prominence that prayer should have in the lives of believers. Some anonymous wise man has said, “If Christians spent as much time praying as they do grumbling, they would soon have nothing to grumble about.”
Our Father and our God, thank You for the precious avenue of prayer. I take great comfort in being able to talk to You continually. It is my joy to know that You are ever-present and attentive to my needs and concerns. Help me to be vigilant in prayer and praise to You and Your Son, Jesus, in whose name I pray. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).