Monday, January 18, 2016

Our Need For Solitude In Prayer

Reflections for this date are based on the following scripture passages:
Luke 4 Luke 5 Luke 6 Exodus 23 Exodus 24 Psalms 31

"During those days He went out to the mountain to pray and spent all night in prayer to God." (Luke 6:12) Jesus found it necessary to withdraw frequently from the crowds that thronged Him and even from the disciples in whom He poured his life. He needed time for solitude and prayer. For Him it was needed more than a night's sleep. If this were true for Jesus, how much more is our need for solitude and prayer? Yes, prayer at anytime is good. Being in continual prayer and conversation with the Father is important, but there is no substitute for prayer combined with solitude.

We need this time alone with God not only to hear from God without interruption, but we also need it for introspection. Our personal and spiritual development will not meet its potential without time alone in solitude. Richard Foster has said that through solitude inner fulfillment can be found. This solitude includes silence. We live in a time when we are continually being bombarded with stimuli, whether it is visual or auditory. People are continually plugged into music. And while music can serve to help us relax and reflect, there comes a time in which we need to be left alone without even the stimulus of music to interrupt God's voice in our inner being and our thoughts that are prompted by His message to us.

It is in these times that our lives are truly examined and needed change wells up from our soul. It is the commitments and change that emerge from these times of solitude and prayer that are transformational and lasting. I have often been challenged and encouraged to make change through someone's testimony or the word's of a speaker. But the impetus for change has occurred when I was alone and determined between just myself and God to make that change.

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