Jesus’ Pattern (Daily Devotional)

Greetings and welcome to Living Supernaturally. Thank you once again for giving us this opportunity to spend a few moments in God's word and in prayer. This week, we've been talking about silence and how sometimes God speaks to us in the silence of our hearts and we wrap up this week looking at Jesus's pattern Matthew chapter 26 and verse 36, ‘Jesus went to his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, sit here while I go over there and pray.’ This passage is when Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane at one of the most difficult periods of His life. Jesus's pattern of prayer is a model of prayer that can be seen in His daily practices, His heartfelt supplications. Before Jesus began His ministry, He spent 40 days alone in the wilderness. On the night of His arrest, He spends time in solitude. In the Garden of Gethsemane, He withdrew from most of His disciples to pray taking only three of them with Him. Then He withdrew from those three to be completely alone in silence with the Father. The beginning and the end of Jesus's ministry were characteristic of everything in between. Seeking silence and solitude was Jesus's lifelong pattern. Before He chose His disciples, He spent an entire night alone in the hills. After Jesus heard the news that John the Baptist had been killed, He withdrew by both privately to a solitary place. Then a bit later, after feeding more than 5,000 people through a miracle, Jesus dismissed the crowd and went into the mountain side by Himself to pray. First, Jesus prayed as an example to His followers. This is an example that we must learn from. Second, the incarnation consists of both divine and human nature. From His human nature, it was perfectly natural for Jesus to pray. Third, the nature of trinity allows communication between its members. Jesus prayed regularly. You and I can also develop this ability. Now this is a difficult lesson but the fact of the matter is that not all our prayers are answered in the way that we expected. Even Jesus knew this hard lesson as He cried out to God in Gethsemane. Three times Jesus prayed for God to allow an easier path but Jesus knew, let not my will but as your will. If the Son of God regularly withdrew to meet with His Father, then surely, we also can do the same. If Jesus needs silence and solitude, then how much more do we need to develop the same discipline. May the Lord empower us to grow in a walk with Him. Let us pray, Father, we thank you for this week and teaching us through your word that maybe some of us have been praying and we haven't seen or heard a response. I pray Lord that in that silence, Holy Spirit you will minister and speak to each of our hearts and bless our hearts. Encourage us and strengthen us. We commit each one of us into your hands, in Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Thank you for tuning in to Living Supernaturally, for more resources to strengthen your spiritual walk, please visit apcwo.org.

Daily devotions to strengthen your faith each day. Daily Devotional for Spirit filled living. Each daily devotion is about five minutes in duration. These daily devotionals are centered around a weekly theme. So there are seven daily devotions that focus on the theme and bring you insight, understanding and revelation from the Bible. Each week’s theme is listed as a series. So you can listen to the current week’s devotions or go to any previous theme/series that speaks to your present need (https://apcwo.org/resources/daily-devotions ). Also available free sermons (https://apcwo.org/sermons), and free Christian books (https://apcwo.org/books) to nourish and strengthen your faith.