Having 3 kids and the opportunity to be home with all of them until they started full time school…  I knew I had to establish a time to pray because the demand for me was too great!  It was difficult, because I am not naturally patient, kind, or even loving especially in the morning!  So I established with each of them at age 4, that I need to “spend time with Jesus”, at least 30 minutes.  So enter ABC shows, kid Praise and Worship videos, etc. whatever to keep them occupied for that time…

Now that they are 11,9,7 if they happen to have a day off where my wife has to work, they don’t come downstairs for the first hour of the morning (they all get up early), because they know I need “quiet time”, and it’s best for them too if I have it!  Though they are more independent, they still have needs that still create “burdens”.  That if I don’t have the peace of God to handle them, then I won’t handle them well, and I want to be more of a “witness” as their father, than anything else.

Jesus reveals to us that as the demand for our “services” increase, the need to withdraw ourselves to pray is crucial to handle those demands.  Now, if Jesus had to withdraw to pray to the Father to handle the demands of life, how is it possible that we can without real solid prayer time?  The answer is we can’t, and that is why if we don’t make time to withdraw to pray, we can’t graciously meet the needs that God put us in people lives for!

Though I have been guilty too, it is ironic to complain about what we have been given to steward over, but not seek God to steward it well.  Some of the demands we can’t avoid, like Jesus, whose “fame” demanded His attention.  But some of us invite more demand, yet don’t invest more prayer time to meet those demands, which cheats those who really need it!  But if demands are coming your way that you can’t control, do you increase your need to withdraw, and spend time with God to handle them?

In His Love, Ld