- Mark Alan Williams
Jesus’ Journey to Bethsaida
Are you willing to spend regular time with God alone in prayer?
In Jesus’ Journey to Bethsaida, we learn that prayer was fundamental for His ministry and life; and it was the foundation of everything that He did. If Jesus needed to spend regular time with God alone in prayer, how much more do we need to as mere mortals.
This article is co-authored by Mark Alan Williams and Beth Harris. Beth is a wife, mother, Bible study leader, and volunteer writer and editor for markalanwilliams.net.
Whether we are a morning or evening person, the important thing is that we set an appointment with the Lord and keep it. We can start with 10 - 15 minutes of quiet and uninterrupted time and build up from there to an extended time in prayer.
Matthew 6:6 says, “But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” (NIV)
The Bible has a lot to say about the importance of prayer and includes instructions that are helpful to guide us. Jesus taught His disciples how to pray in Matthew 6:9-13 and we can use The Lord’s Prayer as a template for our time with the Lord.
Also, another good method for prayer is to use an acrostic such as:
A – Adoration: spend time praising the Lord for who He is.
C – Confession: confess our sins.
T – Thanksgiving, give thanks for the blessings that He has given to us.
S – Supplication or present our prayer requests for ourselves and others.
Finally, we need to spend some time reading the Bible and ask the Lord to speak to us through it and then apply what we learn.
One of my (Mark’s) favorite ways to pray is to take a prayer walk. I love to stroll and talk to the Lord. Carolyn and I walk and talk frequently, and she is my closest earthly friend, so I enjoy it immensely. But the Lord is my friend in the heavenly realm, and I enjoy so much my times in prayerful contemplation. As with Carolyn, some walks are richer than others. That is to be expected. But sometimes I am nearly brought to tears by the presence of the Lord in these prayer walks.
Also, I pray through a list, and it reminds me to pray for people and issues I might otherwise forget about. The list keeps me on track and the spontaneity of my prayer walks helps keep me in intimacy with the Lord. For me, both are important.
STANDARD CONCLUSION:
Jesus’ final Great Commission was to “make disciples of all nations.” (Matthew 28:19) You are invited to use the Discipleship Journeys with Jesus materials to make disciples, as Jesus commanded. They’re completely free and easy to access on the internet. Just go to www.djjministry.org and sign up for the complimentary materials.
Each study is accompanied by two short videos recorded on location in the lands of the Bible, so you can see where the events happened! The photo above is from the videos of the first journey.
Journey 6 of DJJ, based on Mark 6:45-46 tells us about prayer. In this Discipleship Journeys with Jesus study of Jesus’ Journey to Bethsaida, we read, reflect on, and interact on that passage and the events recorded there. We commit to spending regular time with God alone in prayer.
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