September 17 Jesus Prayed

Luke 6:12 One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray and spent the night praying to God.
 
“ONE of those days” Jesus went to pray. That phrase gives me pause to consider the great spiritual warfare that was occurring in response to Jesus’ ministry. We have seen evil opposition confront our Lord through the devil’s temptation in the desert, the overwhelming fatigue Jesus would experience as crowds sought physical healing, and the Pharisees’ persistent effort to negate Jesus’ authority and grace. What is Jesus, the man, do as the spiritual battle looms? What does Jesus, the Lord of Hosts, do as sin strives against the Kingdom of God?
   Jesus goes for help. We again recall that Jesus is not about Kingdom business on his own. The Father and the Spirit are intimately involved. The Father shows to the Son what he must do and say. The Spirit gives him the power and discernment to know how to fulfill the Father’s mission. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon him” (Luke 4:18a) and the Son does as empowered.
   Jesus, the man, needs a revival of his human body and spiritual soul. So he stops “doing his love” for a night in order to receive the Father’s and the Spirit’s reviving power. You could compare his needs to the tired pastor going to his leaders to say, “I need help.” He is the worn-out missionary who longs for rest from the unstoppable oppression around him. He is the husband and father who needs some quiet time to be strengthened in the roles the Lord has given to him. He is as the weary wife and mother who needs revived strength for all the balancing that life requires. The Son of Man needed some quiet, empowering time to be fully engaged with the Father and the Spirit and then fully engaged with his creation. So he prayed.
   King David defines this type of prayer time in response to his weariness. Psalms 109:4 In return for my friendship they accuse me, but I am a man of prayer. Read of David’s life in 1 & 2 Samuel and see the great opposition he faced from his enemies and his own people – and his own family.  He knew where to go to be revived into God’s purpose for his life. (You can note in David’s life that sin came into David’s family when he stopped seeking God’s help.)
   Regardless of the opposition you face today, whether it be false friends, temptation, fatigue, ambivalence, habitual sin, frustration, boredom, etc., be as Jesus, the man, and Jesus, the Lord. He had much to do, still, to fulfill his mission on earth. His work will change the course of human history – and, I pray, your eternal soul. Jesus needed a filling of the Trinity’s power to fulfill the Father’s work, and so do you.
 
Prayer: Humble my heart, Lord, to consistently and lovingly seek your help. In the Spirit’s power I pray, amen.