Morning Devotional

May 26, 2005
"Hurricane Season" (Part 3)
    by Don Emmitte

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In one of the villages, Jesus met a man with an advanced case of leprosy. When the man saw Jesus, he fell to the ground, face down in the dust, begging to be healed. "Lord," he said, "if you want to, you can make me well again." Jesus reached out and touched the man. "I want to," he said. "Be healed!" And instantly the leprosy disappeared. Then Jesus instructed him not to tell anyone what had happened. He said, "Go right to the priest and let him examine you. Take along the offering required in the law of Moses for those who have been healed of leprosy, so everyone will have proof of your healing." Yet despite Jesus' instructions, the report of his power spread even faster, and vast crowds came to hear him preach and to be healed of their diseases. But Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer. (Luke 5:12-16 NLT)

If you are like me, when you find yourself in the middle of a storm, you remember more than ever to pray. You don’t have to be reminded of your need for prayer when a real trial occurs. If you are like me also, you have a harder time remembering the need for prayer when life is working well. It is during the routine times of life, which often includes hectic schedules, deadlines, relationships, money concerns, and the like, that I sometimes fail to pray.

When I look at the life of Jesus, which was filled with constant ministry and relationship demands, I find a man who developed a regular habit of prayer. Prayer doesn’t appear in the life of Jesus as a burden or as drudgery. Prayer always seems to be something Jesus had committed the time to do. It was a normal part of His busy life.

Over the years, during the busy times and the slow times of life, (Actually I never seem to find the slow times) God has continually seemed to call me to a more committed prayer life. Considering the actions of Jesus in the area of prayer and with my own personal experience of God’s call to prayer, there certainly appears to be a strong connection between my relationship with God and my need for prayer. Martin Luther once said as he was working so hard in the ministry that he was "too busy not to pray." For most of us, when life really gets busy, our time in prayer and God's Word are among the first to disappear.

I would lift one caution at this point in our study: Be careful what you ask for! An auto dealer, facing bankruptcy, was walking along a beach when he kicked a bottle and out popped a genie. “Thanks for setting me free,” said the genie. “To show my appreciation, I’ll grant you one wish.” “Okay,” said the auto dealer, “I want to be the only foreign car dealer in a major metropolitan market.” “Done!” cried the genie. Immediately, the dealer found himself in a glass-walled office looking out over a major city. “Quick,” he said to his secretary, “tell me who I am.” “You’re the only Cadillac dealer in downtown Tokyo,” said the secretary. Wouldn’t you like to join me in working towards a deeper, richer prayer life, striving to set aside quantities of time to be alone with God and pray?