03.04.10
Wilderness Praying
I’ve recently been studying Jesus’ prayer life for our Wed. night prayer service. Luke 5:16 really captured my attention. Luke records, “But Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray.” When I read this verse, a Wilderness Leadership Training trip I took a number of years ago came to mind. For five days eight of us went into the Alaskan wilderness to learn how to become better leaders. It was quite a trip. We carried just enough food to get us through the five days. We hiked and canoed for 75 miles during that five days. It was a challenge physically, mentally, and spiritually. The most difficult day for me was the solo day. We were required, after a very hard day before, to spend 8 hours by ourselves with God. We were not allowed to have any contact with anyone. It was just me, the bugs, and God. It drove me nuts! I wanted to be extra spiritual and have this great time with the Lord, but I found it difficult to focus. I became bored and restless. What did I learn during my solitude in the wilderness? I needed to cultivate my ability to spend long periods of time with God by myself without other outside stimulation. Why, because my Savior thought it was important to have these extended periods of time with His Father, our Father. Many times in the Gospels we find Jesus spend long periods of time with His Father all by Himself in places we could classify as “the wilderness.” Luke 5:16 is just one of them. Guess what, I still haven’t learned how to do this well. In fact I have not spent any time in the wilderness with God since my Alaskan trip. I am planning on changing that in 2010.
How about you? How is your wilderness praying? Do you think you would struggle like I did? Why? By the way, if you are thinking you don’t have time to pray in the wilderness hold that thought until next week’s blog.
P. Mark
