Monday, August 15, 2011

Day 51: Down Time


John 8

(7:53) Then they all went home, 1 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
   2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them.

The assumption here is that Jesus went to the Mount of Olives to pray. What I find interesting about this is that Jesus had had a looooong day. Go back and read it. When I finish a day like that, I have a tendency to significantly shorten my prayer time. "I'm just too tired," I'll think. "I won't be able to focus/give God my all/etc.etc.etc." In other words, I make excuses. But Jesus, at the end of a long and stressful day, wanted nothing more than to talk to His Father. 

I want to be there.

I have a dear friend and mentor who once told me a story. Her teenage daughter came home from a school function one night, exhausted. She told her mom that she was so tired that she didn't think she could study her Bible that night, and did her mom think that was okay? Naturally, her mom told her that God would understand and that sometimes what you need is a little rest. The next morning she told her mother, "You told me wrong, you know. God did understand, but what I needed most was some down time with Him." My friend said, "My daughter got it. I didn't." 

At the end of the day, what we really need is some time with our Father.

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