Time Alone in Prayer

Mark 6:45-46

And here, in this short text, we see that Jesus made time in the midst of his busy ministry for private prayer.

One of the things I long for our congregation is that we would become a people who pray. It seems to me that a praying church is the most potent force on earth, because it calls down the power of heaven, it accesses the infinite, it expects the divine hand to reach down and work. A church that does not pray is an embarrassment, a shame, a farce, a joke, a tragedy.

This is why we pray together on Sundays. We pray a lot. We actually believe in God. He hears us. He listens and responds to us. We think non-Christians will might feel a bit uncomfortable with how much time we spend praying together.

But this morning, I want us to consider this morning the practice of private prayer.

It’s also clear that prayer is the mark of the true spirituality of a person in a way nothing else is. Isn’t it? You can fake so much of spirituality. You can show up to church Sunday mornings and come back Sunday evenings. You can invite people into your home. You can use Christian lingo and offer nice Christian platitudes. You might even say things like, “I’ll be sure to be praying for that.” You can give a lot of money to the church. You can set up and tear down.

But none of these things are quite able to measure your walk with the Lord. That is measured by who you are when no one’s looking, in private - by those prayers. Or lack thereof.

Martin Lloyd-Jones, in his Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, has several remarkable chapters on prayer. In one he writes, “Prayer is beyond question the highest activity of the human soul. Man is at his greatest and highest when, upon his knees, he comes face-to-face with God.” And then a paragraph later: “It is the highest activity of the soul, it is the ultimate test of our true spiritual condition.” That statement has pierced me many times. Private prayer is the ultimate test of our true spiritual condition.

If that’s true, what’s your spiritual condition? Strong and healthy? Weak and feeble?

I read this week an article by a missionary named Bill L. titled, “I Stopped Praying for Four Years.” The first paragraph reads: “Part of me died on December 10, 2001, when my lifelong friend passed away. In my grief, I viewed God as good but distant. I had no intimacy with him and did not feel His love; therefore, I had little love for anyone else. I concluded that God was going to do whatever He wanted to do with no regard for my prayers. Since there was absolutely zero reason to pray, I stopped praying for four years.”

I don’t read this story so we can lampoon this guy. I read this because I think it’s far more common than we know. I wonder if there are any here who have stopped praying. Because of grief. Or because of no intimacy with God. Or because of some idea that he doesn’t care.

Have you stopped praying in private?

It’s not only grief that can bring our prayers to a screeching halt. It’s our world. Paul Miller in his book A Praying Life says “American culture is probably the hardest place in the world to learn to pray.” Why is that? He goes on to speak first of how busy we are and second, how addicted to entertainment we are. He writes, “When we aren’t working, we are used to being entertained. Television, the Internet, video games, and cell phones make free time as busy as work.”

Do you know how to have unhurried, uncluttered, uninterrupted time with God?

Consider this text and invitation. A gentle, loving, invitation to come to him. He wants you to see Jesus, his son, and learn from him. 3 Questions: 1) What did Jesus teach about private prayer?, 2) How did Jesus practice private prayer?, 3) How should Jesus praying affect me?

What did Jesus teach about private prayer?

We can’t take a deep dive into what Jesus taught about prayer. But we can look at what might be the most concentrated section where he addresses it. Turn to Matthew 6, right in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount. Chapter 6 begins a section where he’s teaching how to practice your righteousness before God and God alone, not others. I want to look at three central ideas:

First, we are to pray as a child to a father. In other words, for us to pray biblically, we need to believe certain things about ourselves and about God. And what we need to believe is that we are helpless, foolish children and that he is a wise, generous, good, listening father.

This whole section portrays God as our Father. He’s a “Father who is in heaven” (vs 1), “your Father who sees in secret” (vs 4), he “sees in secret” (vs 6), our “Father knows what you need before you ask” (vs 8). We are instructed to start our prayers remembering God is “Our Father in heaven.” Verse 32 we are to remember that our Father knows what we need. And chapter 7 we ought to think of praying as a beloved child speaking to a good generous Father! (vs 9-11).

A good father understands that his little children are weak, easily distracted, and often foolish. But a father loves his children. Often underneath our prayerlessness are dark ideas about God - he’s angry. He’s cold. He’s annoyed. Cast those ideas back to hell - where they came from. God is happy, God is warm and invited, God is generous and compassionate, God is understanding and patient, God is love.

Second, don’t pray to show off. Look at 6:5-6. Here’s their big problem: “that they may be seen by others.” If you pray for an audience on earth, you won’t have an audience in heaven. Your motivation to pray should not be to impress any human being. Some of us might even plan times of private prayer, hoping secretly that people will find out. Prayer is to be to a true and living God - it is not an empty ritual. It is actual communication with the creator, and it is not a vehicle for self-promotion. Corporate prayers are not supposed to be showy- but leading.

Third, pray with faith, not doubt. Look at 6:7-8. We’re not to pray like Gentiles who think they will be heard because of their many words. Praying long, repeating prayers is unbelief. Here’s why: it’s rooted in the belief that God must be coaxed into answering our prayers. If we think that if we pray longer, or if we pray more eloquently, God is more likely to hear us, yes we’ve got a prayer problem but worse we’ve got a theology problem. We think God can be manipulated.

Consider how short the Lord’s prayer is. Jesus is showing them that they can make the request - even if it’s incredibly brief, like “lead us not into temptation” - and boom, that’s that. God heard. It’s a sign of spiritual sickness when in our prayers we say the same thing 7 different times in 7 different ways thinking that our repetition makes us more spiritual and our prayers more effective. No. Rather: bring your requests to God, and then say, “God heard me.”

Look over at 7:7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, it will be opened.”

O church, do you see this wonderful promise? Do you believe it? A mark of the coming of a great work of God is when people started praying with confidence. They actually think things will happen. It’s like when the young depressed preacher asked Spurgeon why he wasn’t seeing anyone converted in his preaching, and Spurgeon asked him, “Do you expect to see people converted every sermon you preach?” The young man answered, “Well, no.” To which Spurgeon replied, “Well that’s your problem!” Believe God answers prayer!

How did Jesus practice private prayer?

Back to our text. The whole miracle of the loaves and fish ends abruptly. He makes his disciples get in the boat. And he dismisses the crowds. Why this sudden ending to a momentous event?

Let me show you what’s happening in this text. Jesus just did a miraculous work in feeding the massive crowd. The gospel of John 6:15 says “Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.”

To align with his Father’s purposes. Jesus refused to become king. He takes control of the situation in verse 45. He dismisses the disciples and sends them away. As they leave he deals with the crowds, refusing their selfish attempt to crown him.

I think this is a moment of significant temptation, very similar to Satan’s temptation. Remember when Satan offered to give Jesus to kingdoms of the world? He offered him a crown without a cross? Here the crowds are doing the same thing.

For him to remain focused on his mission, he must pray.

In fact, in Mark 1, the whole town comes to get healed. They all want a healer. But Jesus hasn’t come to merely heal. So he departs to pray. He prays to protect himself from the drift. To realign his heart with his Father’s purposes.

In Mark 14, he’s in Gethsemane, and he’s asking God if there’s any other way to accomplish salvation without his cross. He is tempted not to go to the cross. How does he fight that temptation? He prays - and he aligns with his Father’s purposes.

And that’s what’s happening in our text. Jesus withdraws to pray. Prayer is how Jesus continually aligned himself with God’s purposes.

A constant, Bible-saturated prayer life is what aligns us with our Father’s purposes. An empty prayerlessness is the first mark of a drifting, backsliding life.

Biblical Counseling Coalition website had an article written by a former pastor who fell into sin and disqualified himself. He writes, “I externally fulfilled my pastoral calling with competence, but I had allowed my personal walk with God to grow cold.”

Have you let your personal walk with God to grow cold? Have you drifted spiritually?

Could it be that you’ve not followed this example of Jesus: that when temptation came, you did not withdraw to pray, but faced it in your own strength?

Second, Jesus made Preparations. Now, in verse 46 he goes up the mountain to pray. But in verse 45, he’s making preparations so that he can go up the mountain to pray. He makes his disciples get into the boat. He tells them where to go. He dismisses the crowd. In other words, he’s wrapping up this miracle moment first, and then he’s going to pray.

In Mark 1 and Mark 6, Jesus had to make preparations to pray in private. You never get the sense that Jesus is just winging it. In Mark 1 he wakes up early to get away from the crowds - something that would have to have been planned the night before. Here, he sends them away.

You make appointments. You keep appointments. What about appointments with God?

Don Carson wrote a book called Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor. Phenomenal book, profoundly moving. It’s D.A. Carson - world renowned New Testament scholar - writing about his dad, Tom Carson, who was a pastor of a tiny church in French Canada for several years.

Don writes in one section about his dad’s prayer habits. He says, “When the door to the study was shut, we kids knew we were not to intrude. Dad’s practice in private prayer was to kneel before the big chair that he used and pray loudly enough to vocalize, so as to keep his mind from wandering. Outside the door we could hear him praying, even if we could not hear what he was saying. I can remember countless days when he prayed for forty-five minutes or more; strange to tell, at this juncture I cannot recall days when he didn’t.”

Preparation was part of how Jesus prayed. It’s part of how Tom Carson ensured a consistent prayer life - he had his spot, and he had prepared his children not to interrupt.

Do you need to prepare? We should know that the best preparations can be interrupted. But interrupted plans are better than no plans at all.

It’s this area of preparation that so often discourages prayer. I think every Christian listening this morning wants to pray more faithfully. The problem isn’t merely lack of desire. But you don’t plan for it. Jesus prioritized private prayer - and so should you.

Have you taken a day off for prayer? If you haven’t been able to pray, I want to give you two things to do today: First, put in on your calendar. Make an appointment, and do not miss it. Secondly, tell a brother or sister. Maybe you guys can help each other out.

Take a day off for prayer. Spend an evening without beeps and buzzes and screens - open your Bible and pray. Make time for undistracted prayer where you’re not multitasking - driving your car, answering emails, or interacting with people. This requires preparation.

Third, Jesus valued Privacy. He went up on the mountain to pray. Why did he do this? Once the crowds were gone, couldn’t he have just stayed on the shore? Better reception?

There are some potential answers. One might be that the visual of the mountain provided needed perspective. I’m sure you’ve experienced that. Once a year my family goes to Oceanside and my in-laws get us the best suite in the building on the highest floor, and there’s a room where you can sit on the balcony and look out and see waves crashing, cars like micromachines zooming by, little people walking their dogs. And you take a deep breath and see things with a little more perspective, a little closer to God’s perspective, who sees all.

That’s likely, but probably not the main thing. There’s also some symbolism here. Moses received revelation from God on a mountain, as he led God’s people. And not only Moses, but the prophet Elijah in 1 Kings 19, was called to go up on a mountain to receive God’s revelation as well. It’s likely that Mark points to Jesus as another man - like Moses who led his people out of slavery in Egypt - like Elijah who spoke the words of God with power - another man who is a prophet revealing the purpose and plans of God.

That’s likely. Probably the main thing here is more simple: He wanted privacy. Quiet. Silence. As the sun is setting on the lake, he walks up that mountain, all alone, unhurried, the excitement of the day’s miracle behind him - to spend uninterrupted time with his heavenly Father.

Not all times - but some times - Jesus valued privacy for the sake of his prayers.

Sometimes Jesus sent people away or avoided them for the purpose of prayer. He planned to be away from people he loved. Sending people away is not unloving. In fact, I think one of the most loving things you can do is to ensure that you’re spending private time with God.

There are some people who are reverse icebergs. Most of an iceberg you see is under the water. But a reverse iceberg is a person whose spirituality is only public, and there is little or nothing there in private.

Is most of your Christianity underneath the surface? Do you have an unseen, private, relationship with God?

Are you like that myth of a man who has no existence alone? He’s at the party. He’s with the crowd. But as soon as the last person leaves, he vanishes into thin air. He doesn’t exist alone. And I think there are some people who are that way spiritually. As soon as they’re all alone their relationship with God vanishes.

What does this mean for us?

So we see here that Jesus gets away to pray. And we find here an example to follow.

But I also want to point out that there’s tremendous encouragement for us here when we consider the fact that Jesus prays.

All through his earthly life, he prayed. He was praying at his baptism (Lk. 3:21). He prayed all night before choosing the 12 (Lk. 6:12). He was praying before Peter realized he was the Messiah (Lk. 9:18). He was praying when he transfigured before Peter and John (Lk. 9:28). The reason the disciples asked if he could teach them to pray is because they saw his praying in Luke 11. He prays that Peter’s faith won’t fail. He prays before feeding the 5,000, he prays before the Lord’s Supper.

Interesting, even after his resurrection, when he meets the men on the road to Emmaus, it says he prayed before their meal. So even after the resurrection, when he has a glorified body, he’s still praying. And guess what? The Bible says that even after he ascended into heaven, he’s praying. That is, he’s speaking to his Father.

Turn to Romans 8:31, this is perhaps the Evrest of Scripture. These verses are mountain peaks, they contain multitudes of blessing:

“What shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died - more than that, who was raised - who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.”

Paul is raising massive questions. Can God be against us? Can we be found guilty on judgment day? Will we, in the end, be condemned? These are questions every self-aware soul has asked.

What is our hope? What hope do sinners have to stand before a holy God? And the related question: what hope could we possibly have that our prayers be heard?

Look at verse 34: Christ Jesus is the one who died. That is, he took the full weight of our sin and guilt and paid for it himself. But it doesn’t stop there: “More than that.” More? More than the death of Christ? Aren’t we secure enough because of Christ’s death?

Here’s another layer of your security, Christian: Christ was raised, Christ is at the right hand of God, who indeed - without doubt, without question - interceding for us. Christ prays for us.

If you’ve given up on prayer, he hasn’t. If you’ve been distracted, he isn’t. If your prayers have been wandering, his are perfect.

Church, I’ve had seasons of difficulty in prayer. I’ve been discouraged by my prayer life. I’ve asked the question, “What in the world is wrong with me? Why is it so hard to pray?” And you know what’s kept me working at it? It’s that Jesus hasn’t stopped praying. He intercedes for me.

He prayed his way through his life on earth. He prayed his way to the cross. He prayed after the resurrection. And he continues to this day to pray for his beloved elect.

I find so much encouragement to pray by the fact that my Savior hasn’t stopped praying for me. And if you’re in Christ, he has not stopped praying for you. And though you fail, he invites you again.

So don’t give up on prayer. Would you be sure to get private time with your God this week? Perhaps this day - especially if you haven’t in a while?

Don’t quit trying to pray.

Fail again, that’s better than quitting.

Pray weak prayers, better than no prayers.

And if you’re struggling to pray, don’t leave today until you pray with someone. Ask them to pray for you.