Awaken The Dawn

AWAKEN THE DAWN!

arose and went and departed to a lonely place, and was praying there. 7

In the midst of healing multitudes—including a leper and a paralytic—Jesus prays. Luke comments about the Lord’s habit: “But He Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray.” Luke also noted that “the power of the Lord was present for Him to perform heal- ing.” This power cannot be dissociated from prayer. Luke wrote more about Jesus’ prayer life than any other evangelist. As a man of science, he was deeply interested in the way his Master functioned. He showed us Jesus as the ideal Son of man in various settings, but he was par- ticularly fascinated by the prayer life that Jesus modeled. On one occasion, Jesus dramatically healed a paralytic’s hand on the Sabbath. The enraged scribes and pharisees plotted to destroy Him. What did Jesus do in the face of such hostility? This undoubtedly accounts for the divine “power…com- ing from Him and healing them all.” At this point we see not only early morning prayer, but also all-night prayer. In a sense, morning prayer is like “priming the pump.” No matter how vigorously you pump the the handle, no water will flow out until you pour some water down the shaft; then water will flow out every time you push the handle. Jesus certainly prayed throughout the day, but the start of the day was of particular importance to Him. It would seem that since all of us do not pray as much or And it was at this time that he went off to the moun- tain to pray, and he spent the whole night in prayer to God. 8

44