.....skip

And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed. Mark 1:35

I've told myself plenty of reasons why prayer gets pushed down my list some days — I'm too busy, too tired, too behind on everything else. But Jesus had every legitimate reason to skip it that I could ever claim, and more. The day before this verse, He'd been healing crowds late into the evening Mark 1:32-34. And still, before the sun was up, He got up to pray. That removes an excuse I didn't realize I was still leaning on.

I used to assume Jesus prayed mostly as an example for me to imitate, almost like a demonstration. But I've come to see it differently: His humanity made prayer a necessity and a privilege... And if the Saviour of men, the Son of God, felt the need of prayer, how much more should feeble, sinful mortals feel the necessity of fervent, constant prayer. Steps to Christ, pp. 93-94

If the sinless Son of God experienced prayer as a genuine necessity, not an optional add-on, then my own resistance to it says more about my pride than my schedule. I don't actually have less need of it than He did. I have more.

What strikes me most is that Jesus didn't live in constant withdrawal, and He didn't live in constant activity either. He moved between the two: "The life must be like Christ's life — between the mountain and the multitude." Steps to Christ, p. 102

I notice I tend to drift toward one extreme or the other — either so busy with "the multitude" that prayer gets crowded out entirely, or so withdrawn that I forget prayer was meant to send me back out, not just keep me in retreat. I'm learning that the rhythm itself is the discipline: withdraw, then return; pray, then serve.

Where in my schedule have I quietly decided I'm too busy for what Jesus, with far more demands on Him than I carry, refused to skip?

Lord Jesus, You modeled a need for prayer I so easily talk myself out of. Teach me Your rhythm — time with You that sends me back out, not away from the people who need me. Let me stop treating prayer as optional when even You did not. In Jesus' name