Msg #2038 Sweet Hour of Prayer

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

“And straight way Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship...” (Matt 14:22). Jesus sought out this desert place after the death of John the Baptist. He had then tasked his disciples to feed the five-thousand that followed them there, and they did! Now he “constrained” them into a ship. I'm thinking Peter was the last one in, and needed more constraining than the others, but Jesus was eventually left alone in this desert place. “And... he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone.” If you have ever led in public prayer, if you have prayed together in a group of believers, if you have led in family prayer or had one-on-one prayer with a child or spouse, good on you, but this is not that. Evangelist H. Boyd often asked, “How long does it take you to have a 'sweet hour of prayer?” A whole minute of prayer before a meal is three minutes per day, and in twenty days you'll have an hour of prayer accumulated. That is not sweet. Jesus needed to be alone with God so he could pray in earnest; so do you and I. All our prayers should be an intimacy with our heavenly Father, but alone, and speaking out loud to him is a different kind of intimacy than is found in any other form of prayer. Jesus needed it. It seems like he needed it more than I desire it.

What of the disciples, constrained into a boat and tangled in an ugly storm until the fourth watch? Some Christians live life as if Jesus said, “Oh man, I forgot all about the disciples in the boat.” He didn't. He doesn't. Have a sweet hour of prayer this week.

An Essay for week #38 Sep 20, 2020

Msg in audio at www.GSBaptistChurch.com/audio/gs200920.mp3

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A weekly 300 word essay- The Penny Pulpit
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