Jul 30

Luke 9:1-10
Memorise Acts 3:19
“…times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord…”

At the beginning of Luke 9, Jesus sends out His twelve disciples to preach the Gospel to the surrounding towns. They labored hard and did many miracles of healing and casting out devils as they preached the “kingdom of God” (Luke 9:1-6). After their hard work, they returned to Jesus and confided in Him all they had done. Jesus then led them “privately into a desert place belonging to the city called Bethsaida” (Luke 9:10). They “went aside privately” or, as the Greek words describe, retired quietly or withdrew to be on their own. Jesus wanted them to quieten their busy hearts before Him and spend time in His presence reflecting on all that they had gone through. Throughout His time on earth, Jesus truly valued these quiet moments away from the crowd as He often retreated to a deserted place where He would spend long periods of time praying to His Father. We see this in Matthew 14:23 where He “went up into a mountain apart to pray”, and in the garden of Gethsemane where He cried out to His Father before His death on the Cross.

Through Jesus’ example, we learn that quiet time away from the hectic lifestyle and pace of the world is crucial. Jesus and the disciples worked hard in preaching the Gospel and serving the people through miraculous healings but they found time to withdraw themselves from the hustle and bustle and spend time with God and their fellow believers. This may seem very hard to do in our busy lives but we really need to make an effort to set aside time with God. We cannot say that we have no time for this! There is no such thing as “no time”; rather, it is how we choose to use our time. We need to understand that spending time alone with God is vital for strengthening our relationship with God. Christ considered it important, and so should we. Daily we should set aside time to read God’s Word and pray to Him. Yearly, we should endeavour to go for church camps which provide the perfect opportunity to, physically and spiritually, get away from our busy lives and immerse ourselves in God’s Word and sweet Christian fellowship. Truly these are “times of refreshing” that come from the “presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19).

Thought: Why do you think it is important to retreat from our busy lives?
Prayer: Dear Lord, help me to desire to find quiet moments with Thee.