Exploring the Prayer Life of Jesus
A Bible Study on Mark 1:35
I’m humbled by your response to the Psalm 23 series. Thank you so much for that. I appreciate your liking the post, sharing it, and commenting on it. It not only reveals that you are more eager to study the Word of God, but it also encourages me to write more Bible studies.
Prayer is something that I’ve always struggled with. Many times, I am so busy that I would rather spend time exploring the endless succession of Reels on Instagram or watch videos on YouTube that have zero relevance to my life. I reason to myself that the Lord understands that I’m tired and He won’t mind, since He is a forgiving God.
I don’t know if you’ve felt that way or done something like this, but this is my honest confession.
So, what can we do to avoid such things happening again? We study the prayer life of Jesus. In other words, we ask, “What would Jesus do?” or in this case, “What did He do?”
Mark 1:35 reads,
35 Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.
I haven’t surveyed this, but I think that one of the reasons people offer for not spending (enough) time in prayer would be that they are ‘busy’. Some might be busy doing what I mentioned above, while others might be genuinely busy with their jobs and studies.
Jesus had an amazing prayer life. Does this mean that He was not busy at all? Let’s find out.
Please read Mark 1:21, 29, 32, 35.
These verses depict the busy life of Jesus: Jesus was the speaker at the synagogue of Capernaum (21). Just after the teaching, a possessed man was present whom Jesus exorcised (23-26). After that, Jesus went to the home of Simon’s mother-in-law, who was sick, and Jesus healed her (29-31). As if this wasn’t enough, “the whole town gathered at the door” for healing and exorcisms (32-34). All of this happened within the same day. This demonstrates that Jesus was busy.
If I were Jesus, I’d take a day off, relax, and enjoy. But that is not the case with Jesus. Marks 1:35 reads, “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.”
Notice how Mark uses two phrases to demonstrate the earliness of the morning. The first one is ‘very early’, and the second one is ‘while it was still dark’. These phrases show that the time would roughly be before five in the morning.
What can we learn from this? We learn that the time at which we pray matters a lot. There’s one thing to note: It is not necessary to pray early in the morning. You can choose any time that works for you. It is not a sin to pray any other time of the day.
With that being said, I would highly encourage you to pray in the morning or as early in the day as possible and I have my reasons for it. First, pouring out your burdens to God before you face the world is good. Second, let’s say that for some reason, you missed praying in the morning. You still would have an entire day to pray. With that, let’s unpack the rest of the verse.
Jesus likely slept at the home of Simon’s mother-in-law. We know from the previous verses that along with Jesus, there were James, John, and Simon’s mother-in-law. So, Jesus wasn’t alone.
This is also one of the reasons that support praying in the morning. You can best pour out your heart when you are alone with God.
In conclusion, if you want a good and consistent prayer life like Jesus, pray in the morning (or any time that works for you) and be alone when you it.
Prayer is more than just talking to God; It is a communion, a fellowship with God. Jesus probably never missed it. He knew that the day ahead of Him would be full of struggles and challenges, distractions, and hardships. That was all the more reason for Jesus to commune with God the Father.
I pray that this short exploration of Jesus’ prayer life would encourage you to pray more.
What are the things that I missed? Let me know.
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