Dear church,

This week, I’m going to give you a few leftover thoughts from Luke 5. I hope they are helpful. Please keep reading one chapter of Luke per day. I pray you will be blessed as you read.

“But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.” – Luke 5:16 

Prayer must punctuate your life as a disciple of Jesus Christ. In the middle of the busy-ness, we find Jesus praying. The crowds pressed in on him, but he did not let the crowds dictate his relationship with the Father. 

It would have been easy for Jesus to yield to those who wanted good things from him. Likewise, it would have been easy for Jesus to recognize the good work he was doing and say, “I have a duty not to stop until it all is completed.” After all, much work needed to be done. And God the Father always was there. Prayer could come later.

There is much work to do. Right now, you may have great works in mind for your day. This is good. This is why we must pray – so that we don’t get lost in the work we’ve set out to do. We must work with our mind on God’s will. We must constantly go back to God for guidance, encouragement, and perspective. 

Jesus would “withdraw to desolate places.” To pray, we must pull back from the work. Sometimes, we can only do this mentally. But that is enough. A man making sales calls can pray, as can the driver of a backhoe. We “withdraw,” and we talk to our heavenly Father.

Chris