Luke 5-6

I’m such a sucker for excitement and thrill. I love surprises and adrenaline. I even kind of like being scared because the feeling of nervous anticipation closely resembles that of excitement. I love the feeling I get when the waitress is finally heading towards my table after I’ve been eyeing her every time she rounds the corner to make an analysis of the food on her platter to see if it might be mine. I love the imposing sound of the lion roaring in the movie theater revealing that the movie is about to begin. I’m rereading this and realizing I sound like a freak but I’m telling it like it is: I love to be excited!

Ok, with that admission in mind let me confess that I was a bit bummed when I realized that this week I’d be blogging the same section of Jesus’ life for the THIRD time. So selfish, I know. Another thing I love is clarity and it became clear to me that God wanted me to read and re-read and re-re-read the beginning of Jesus' ministry. I'm not sure yet, but I have a feeling I have one more re-read coming my way when I get to John.

I felt convicted about feeling bored with God's word that He tells us is living and active and sharp [Hebrews 12] and once again I bowed my shameful head and my hollow heart to God and asked for newness and a fresh perspective on the scripture...and He didn't give it to me but what He gave to me was better.

I read in Luke 5 that "Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed" and then in Luke 6 "One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God." My first reaction was to wonder why Jesus, the son of our almighty God, had to be lonely? I was kind of sad for Him...speculating that the burden of ministering to countless lost souls was so much that Jesus had to be alone to deal with all of it...and then God graciously offered me contentment. He didn't give me an exciting, earth-shattering revelation about the scripture. He gave me contentment and the realization that Jesus CHOSE the time alone with His Father.
I am humbled by God's word and Jesus' wisdom -- I feel so small and self-absorbed as I sit here in front of this computer screen attempting to even describe the fullness of God. Jesus went to lonely places to be with God but He wasn't alone...He was in the presence of the One who makes life have purpose. It just plopped it into perspective for me. There was no point to Jesus' life on Earth if He wasn't praying to do only what God sent Him to do. His prayers weren't for the purpose of equipping Him to do God's work. His prayers were the work.

Our prayers shouldn't be dependent upon where God has placed us or what we're currently going through. No matter what we should continually offer up prayers to Him. And He promises, "Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do . . ." [John 14:13]. Yet we refuse to pray unless it thrills or excites us, which is the most intense form of spiritual selfishness.

Oswald Chambers put it like this, "There is nothing thrilling about a laboring person’s work, but it is the laboring person who makes the ideas of the genius possible. And it is the laboring saint who makes the ideas of his Master possible. When you labor at prayer, from God’s perspective there are always results. What an astonishment it will be to see, once the veil is finally lifted, all the souls that have been reaped by you, simply because you have been in the habit of taking your orders from Jesus Christ."


Jenna Trapasso
March 9