LUKE 6:12

One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray and spent the night praying to God.

TO PONDER

I went camping with my middle son and his oldest boy a while back. While there, we walked down a long and very steep 4x4 track, from the escarpment to the sea. I found it a difficult track to descend but that was nothing to the ascent. My boys had to stand by me as I struggled all the way back up. It was embarrassing and excruciating.

Isn’t it just so with ascending the prayer space? All sorts of obstacles present themselves. Urgent tasks, start of the day rush, end of the day weariness, too many things on our minds, and an urgent sense of hurry for all of it.

A Kenyan proverb says, ‘haraka haraka haina baraka’ – hurry has no blessing. It is said that when African tribesmen once acted as porters for white safaris, they stopped every few days to ‘wait for their souls to catch up with them’.

Setting times in our diaries to regularly ‘go up the mountain to pray’ is essential for our mental and physical health. It’s a place to find blessing in the sitting and the silence of God’s holy presence, in whatever quiet space we choose. A place for blessing and for our souls to catch up with us. 

Spiritual Intelligence is knowing how, when, and why to stop, wait on God, and on our own souls to catch up.

PRAYER

Father, you gave us three blessings when you created this cosmos. You blessed the earth that it may be fruitful. You blessed men and women that their lives may be fruitful. You blessed a day a week for rest so that every seven days we could sit in blessing and wait for our souls to catch up. Bless me with the faith to leave all my responsibilities in your hands for a short period of sabbath rest each day and for a whole day every week. Amen. 

Today's devotion by David Schuppan, LifeWay Illawarra