But He Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray. (Luke 5:16)
Jesus hungered for time with His Father. He made time to get away and cultivate His ability to hear God. As He would often get away to the wilderness, this indicates a desire to move away from the noise, the demands, the activity of His life and enter a place where His heart could find quiet. He not only intentionally pulled-away from His normal setting, but He actively sought places of silence and solitude for the undistracted cultivation of His relationship with His Father. Jesus sought God’s presence in silence and solitude so He could then better attend to God’s presence in the midst of His daily activity.
I find that I have a great need to pull away from the demands and actually make space to cultivate my relationship with God apart from my normal environment where distractions abound. I also believe that Jesus longed—with great desire—for special times with His Father because there He found unqualified acceptance and welcome that allowed Him to wrestle His interior through with God. I think that as I do the same, I will grow more convinced of God’s love because the experience of His person will make that love all the more real.
God desires to meet you and empower you for life in His Kingdom.
For Reflection:
“My soul, wait in silence for God only, for my hope is from Him.” (Psalms 62:5 NASB)
- What sort of environment or setting does it take for you to really quiet your interior before God to enter into deep conversation with Him?
- What sorts of things bubble up on your inside when you wait receptively before your heavenly Father?
- What sort of deep meanderings inside you have you been desiring to talk over with God?
