Leant Season (Ash Wednesday)

Leant Season (Ash Wednesday): ”

In His Presence Family Worship Center

Beloved allow me to apologize for not sending our devotional last week. Last week was in fact a bit overwhelming for me. I beg your forgiveness, and do promise to redouble my efforts to be consistent with this ministry. Love you guys. Thank you. Now this weeks devotional. 

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

NLT
Mark 1:35  ¶ The next morning Jesus awoke long before daybreak and went out alone into the wilderness to pray. 

Grace and peace be unto you from God our Father, and from the LORD Jesus Christ. Beloved today we are embarking on our Season of Lent. We have taken this year, as a guide for our Lent season meditation a look at some ‘Holy Habits’ as referenced by Rich Bimler. We will take a few themes from his narrative and see what can be gleaned for our sojourn in this season of lent. 
Today for Ash Wednesday the theme is Prayer.  The text we want to look at for this short time is Mark 1:35. 
Let’s take an overview of the context in which we find ourselves. Chapter one of the book of Mark covers several events in the early stages of Jesus’ ministry. 
I. The Beginning of Jesus’ Ministry (1:1-13)
A. The Ministry of John the Baptist (1:1-8)
B. The Baptism of Jesus (1:9-11)
I. The Temptation in the Wilderness (1:12-13)
II. Jesus comes to Galilee and begins preaching (1:15
A. Jesus gathers his staff (1:16-20)
B. Jesus teaches in the synagogue (1:21-26)
C. News of this Jesus spreads (1:27,28)
D. Jesus heals Peter’s mother in law (1:29-31)
E. Jesus heals the multitude (1:31-34)

Immediately after this great work of preaching and healing we come to our text. Jesus performs numerous miracles, preaches radical sermons, sermons so radical that the demons are agitated to such an extent, they must abandon their host. Today, such a preacher would be admonished to get some business cards, get a building, start a work, travel the world, get a TV program and begin the ministry. Here the bible tells us that Jesus did something interesting. The text tells us that after the triumphant ministry of healing people with various diseases, after the radical approach to teaching the word of God, Jesus did not bask in those accomplishments. Although we should always take the time to give God the glory, and celebrate victories. It seems though that the mature and wise thing to do is to continue to do the things that insure our success. Let’s take a look at the text. In the King James Version the evangelist tells us, 
Mark 1:35 And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed. 

Three things happened, 
1. Jesus woke up early, to the extent that there was a difference between prayer time, and the start of the day.
2. He separated himself from everything and everyone. 
3. He prayed. 

Issue number one, Jesus woke up early, the scriptures penned it this way, ‘rising up a great while before day’. The interesting point here is that there was a notion that prayer time was not to be fitted into the schedule, it was an entity all it’s own. It was not something you multi-tasked. I am guilty of this, I must admit. I while take the time to pray, as I am driving into the city, or as I doing things around the house. Make a point of making prayer time separate and apart from any other activity. I know we all have busy days, and we certainly are not going to insinuate that Jesus had more time on his hand than we do. Could it be that our day is radically unmanageable because we do not take the time in prayer to consult God on our day. Jesus valued his time with the Father so much that it meant taking the time out of his day to stop every thing else, and speak to his father. We should re-double our efforts to do the same. 
He also placed value on his time with the LORD by separating himself from every one. Committing to be alone with God is the height of intimacy. You value someone enough to be alone with them, and not allowing anyone to compromise the value you place on God. Of course in moments like this, when God is your focus, clarity is a clear by product of your effort to strengthen your Christian walk. Prayer is mainly a dialogue. Dialogue is where intimacy becomes the norm. Take the time to get away, on your own with just you and God. It does not have to be a weekend on an Island. That would be great, but there are opportunities that you make for the important things in your life. Get up early,  specify some time during your day, or take extra time before bed to be alone with God. 
Finally Jesus prayed. Of course this is the most important part of this habit. Talk to God. There are so many theories about prayer, but I beg you to not allow theories to get in the way of just talking to God. Some people say you should talk like you are talking to your friend. I think we should ascribe more reverence and honor than just a simple friend. In other words we aught to never feel it is appropriate to be familiar with God, as to not honor him. Still the friend notion has some validity. There is no greater friend than God. The notion here is to speak to God with the transparency you would with a trusted friend. The only way for us to gain anything from the experience in prayer is to be honest with God, about everything. Our needs, our likes and dislikes, our shortfalls and our fears. Prayer changes things is a popular saying. Allow me to proffer this notion, prayer changes everything including us. Get into the habit of prayer.

Yours Because I’m His
Leo Colon
pastor@ihpfwc.org
http://www.ihpfwc.org
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(Via .)