JESUS’ PURPOSE HAS FIRST PRIORITY

“One thing that I desire of Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple.”—Psalm 27:4

Scripture tells us that Jesus withdrew himself from the world, from distractions, from those elements that pulled on Him so that He could pray.  “So He Himself [Jesus] often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed” (Luke 5:16).  He drew on the life giving source of the Eternal Father.  He had to have the time to hear what the Father had to say.  Jesus said in John 5:19, “…the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.”  Luke 4:32 “And they were astonished at His doctrine: for His word was with power.”  The Holy Spirit has promised us that when we draw near to God; He will draw near to us.

The promise of the Holy Spirit, on the Day of Pentecost, is that same Spirit that is again filling the Church with holy longings.  Like the believers in Acts, those responding to the Spirit, in this day, will make prayer the great priority of life.  Throughout the New Testament instructions and commands concerning prayer include this same word: “…continuing instant in prayer” (Romans 12:12).  In all of these Scriptures, the Greek word for “continue” is proskartereo which means “to be in constant readiness or give constant attentions to a thing.”  Thought not in reference to prayer, its use in Mark 3:9 paint’s a graphic picture as to its application.  “So He told His disciples that a small boat should be kept ready for Him because of the multitude, lest they should crush Him.”  The boat was ready for Jesus to keep the people from crowding Him.  The idea is that the boat had been prepared and marked: Jesus’ purpose has first priority.  This boat had been set aside for His purposes.  It was not to be considered for anything else.

Proskartereo, as concerning prayer, means to be in constant readiness, to wait continually, or to have as a first purpose.  The first work of the Kingdom is prayer.  The early Church made prayer their priority.  Their prayer lives dictated their life-style so that they might accomplish the work of God.  Likewise, if we are going to fulfill the commands of Jesus, we must make prayer the priority of our lives.  Such an attitude will preclude many of the pitfalls that sabotage our prayer lives.  If prayer is our priority, we are not dependent upon our “feelings.”  How many people go to work only when they feel like it?  We will not “bottom out”, if we will pray from principle, rather than some sensation. 

A regular prayer life demands dedication and discipline.  People move away from prayer to please their flesh.  If prayer is our first occupation, then our prayer time becomes the place of our greatest fulfillment and opportunity of expression.

With prayer as the priority of life, we eliminate the tired refrain “I do not have time to pray!”  If we are too busy to offer God more than an occasional ejaculatory prayer, then we must admit that our lives are tied up with all kinds of things that are not the priority of life.  If we evaluate our life-styles honestly, in the end, we must conclude that we choose what will be in them. 

 

God does not want to crowd our lives with prayer.  Prayer is a place to take our leisure in Him.  It is to be the refuge from the chaos of the world.  In prayer, in His presence, we follow the admonition for life: “One thing that I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple” (Psalm 27:4). 

Our life-styles will reflect our obedience to Jesus’ commands when we make prayer a priority, by rearranging our lives around our praying.  Like the small boat the disciples prepared for Jesus, we bear the stamp “Jesus’ purpose has first priority.”

Prayer—Father I repent for not making prayer my first priority and today I make a fresh commitment to regularly spend time with you, in Jesus Name. Amen.