Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior,

This week the gospel reading from Mark 1:35-39 has Jesus in the early morning going out to a deserted place to pray. I invite you in your reading and listening to the text to reflect upon the following: 

Sunday is Reformation Sunday. There is a great deal of history in Protestantism regarding the Reformation. What I always find intriguing is how prayer and God’s Word (Scripture) reformed individual’s lives and society. Martin Luther when asked what his plans were for the day were, responded by saying: “Work, work from early until late. In fact, I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer,” (1923 Cyclopedia of Religious Anecdotes, page 303, compiled by James Gilchrist Lawson). Luther also was immersed in the Scriptures, translating the New Testament from Erasmus’s Greek edition in 11 months with the first edition appearing in September 1522. Scripture for the reformers along with prayer and worship were the foundation or norm for faith and life. How are scripture, prayer, and worship the norm for your faith and life? 

To live the Christian life is to live a life of prayer. What does this look like or how is it done? Jesus is the example as he rose early in the morning to pray. To be with God. Looking at Jesus’ life it was a life of prayer. He was always praying in the morning, evening, at meals, in healing people, in casting out demons prayer was central to His life. In reflecting upon Jesus’ life of prayer how central is prayer in your life? What is the form of your prayer? What is the content of your prayer?  

Jesus taught his disciples and us as well how to pray in the Lord’s Prayer. When praying the Lord’s Prayer how do you hear the petition “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”? I ask this question because in our reading of the gospel of Mark in chapter one verse fifteen Jesus says: “The time is fulfilled, … the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe in the gospel!” 

Take time pray, read and study scripture, and reflect upon who God has called you to be as a person of prayer. 

In Christ, 

Pastor Tim