Campfield AME Church is celebrating 179 years of service in the Pikesville, MD area. Some organizations don’t last 179 days, let alone years, but to God be the glory for the great things He has done in this house of worship. It is not anything that humanity has done, but God has been the guiding light and the way maker through every trial.
Mark 1:35 – 39 reveals to us that Jesus came on a mission and was focused on that mission. He did not linger in one place but was mindful that He was on assignment. Jesus healed many, but in this case, He needed to move to the next region. God would make a way for those Jesus could not help.
There are people with needs in the community today. They may not come through the church doors, but they are searching for relief from many problems, needs and concerns. There is the mother who is looking for someone to mentor a son who keeps getting into trouble; the household that has witnessed the breadwinner lose his or her job; the family needing rent money to keep the family from being evicted; the couple with marital problems. So many needs of people today. And before the church can present Jesus, we must meet the physical needs of people. Sometimes in ministry, people arrive in droves needing help here and now.
But Jesus leaves us a model. He leaves the discipline of prayer which helps to meet the needs of people. If we are going to build lives, we must use the discipline of prayer.
- First of all, we build ourselves up through prayer. Jesus found a time and a place to be alone with God. In those times that we are alone with God, we can reflect on all that is happening to us, with us and around us. God speaks to us and opens our eyes to see what the priorities in life are. God gives us direction and orders our steps in His word. It is in quiet prayer, before the city buses and the trash trucks begin to roll by, before the radio blasts, the phone starts ringing, and the television brings it’s sad news that we can get our daily orders from God. In that time that we can express our love for God, our gratefulness for His goodness and His mercy to us. In that time, we can express our faith and our trust that God has us in the palm of His hand and everything is going to be alright. Early in the morning we can join those chirping birds that are singing praise unto a great God.
- We meet the need of others through prayer. Jesus was able to meet the needs of others because he first cultivated a prayer life. Jesus carved out time in his busy schedule to talk with God in prayer and in essence, have his battery recharged. In this passage and throughout the Gospels, we find that Jesus made it a habit to rise before dawn and go pray in a deserted place. And so, as we follow the model Jesus left, to arise and pray, allowing God to recharge our batteries and provide us with divine marching orders, we can press forward with the purpose of reaching those God intends for us to reach. In prayer and with a clear purpose, like Jesus, we will be able to proceed with power—proclaiming the message of the Good News and helping people to be healed from behaviors, habits, lifestyles, and attitudes not of God and that seek to destroy lives.
Because Jesus took time to pray, He was not overwhelmed or stressed in any way. Finding time to pray is not easy, but prayer is the vital link between us and God. You have not been given the time; you must take it. Like Jesus, we must break away from others to talk with God, even if we must get up very early in the morning to do it.
