Friday, November 27, 2009

A Solitary Place

Mark 1:35 KJV
And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.

I am at the church this morning, the day after Thanksgiving. No one else is around and the building is quiet. It is a solitary place right now.

Tomorrow morning the church will have several and varied activities taking place: visitation groups in the morning, a Saturday intensive class throughout the day, and a martial arts discipleship class in the evening. Then, just two days from today we will meet for our Sunday services. This place will be a beehive of activity. Young children will move swiftly through the hallways, a group of ladies will gather for a private time of prayer, classrooms will begin to fill with students, music will play on the pianos and over our speaker system, finally God's Word will be preached. This place, which is so silent and solitary right now will be anything but in just two days.

I am thinking today that there must be these solitary times, and significantly more of them than the busy times, to make the busy times have any meaning whatsoever. Jesus met His heavenly Father in a solitary place. How can we expect to meet Him anywhere else? Sure, there is an appropriate time for the bustle of the assembly of believers. But that assembly is oiled and made fit, through those solitary times we spend in the presence of God alone.

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