Preachin' Blues

Oh, I went in my room, I bowed down to pray
Oh, I went in my room, I bowed down to pray
Till the blues come along, and they blowed my spirit away

Son House

And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them. And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea.

Matthew 14:23-25

The Christian walk is not an easy walk. Christ calls it the narrow road. He calls his people to carry their cross, to sell their possessions, to eat his flesh and to drink his blood. He commands us to pray and then gives us a simple five second example as a prayer, yet when we look at his life, we see a life devoted to service and prayer.

In the verse posted above, the fourth watch is considered to have occurred between 3 and 6 am. Christ, after the feeding of the five thousand, dismisses the crowd around dusk. The Word says he immediately goes into the mountain to pray. From the text, we can deduce that he prayed approximately 6-9 hours! I often look at my life and wonder what it could be like if I devoted half of that time per WEEK in prayer. Paul commands us to pray without ceasing, and I suppose that as I go about my daily activities, that I could make my thoughts obedient to Christ, but to devote 6-9 hours a DAY, on my face, in prayer seems far outside the capabilities of this feeble human mind. What type of fruit would be born from that type of obedience? Would my flesh have the same power over me as it currently does? At what rate would my faith grow in Christ?

These questions cannot be answered with any sort of formulaic or quantitative response, however, one should only look at the lives of those who have counted the cost for the sake of the gospel and see that prayer is firmly rooted in their lifestyle. I am not one for resolutions but I would very much desire to pray as Jesus prayed. This is the first step in the pursuit of holiness. So my desire is that everyday I would pray and seek holiness just a little more than the day before. That through time, I could develop the mind of Christ, that I would be transformed to his image. Let 2010 be the year of broken hearts and calloused knees