Prepare for Easter

Saturday, March 21, 2020

About My Father’s Business:

A Lenten Devotional Guide

The news about Him was spreading even farther, and large crowds were gathering to hear Him and to be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray.

Luke 5:15-16 NASB

Well, here is a lesson I have not learned well! Oh, I do pray. I prayerfully get ready for Sunday morning class, for other classes during the week. I pray with people who have needs or who share some new joy. I pray when I’m asked at staff meetings or at Council. I pray for my children or friends in crises. But do I “slip away to the wilderness” to give God my undivided attention, not only to talk to him but to listen to his reply? I’m sorry. I fail this test.

From what others tell me, I am not alone. But I must not take consolation in that. Why, when we see how important prayer was to Jesus do we fail to make it a primary part of our own lives? I think I have found an answer that helps me. I forget to envision myself talking to the living God, listening for the living God! I’ve been reading books on prayer by some giants in the Spiritual Transformation movement in our church. Richard Foster and Phillip Yancey are my favorites. They have been teaching me through their own words and the words of saints down through the ages to be still for a while, quiet my over-active brain, refuse intrusion, concentrate on some great truth of God that I appreciate. They’ve been teaching me to allow God to have a place in my prayer life.

I haven’t mastered their teaching yet, but when I manage to do as they suggest, I am overwhelmed at his presence.

Father, enter into our wilderness. Become a part of our prayer. Amen

About My Father’s Business:

A Lenten Devotional Guide
prepared for First United Methodist Church of Homosassa, Florida
Spring 2010
by Patience Nave, Christian Education Coordinator