January 30, 2015 … Sledding & Praying

Daily Berry Patch Devotions in 2015 - Day 30

January 30, 2015 … Sledding & Praying 

Devotional Song: ... Go to this link  … Please take the time to take in a video one of my favorite songs sung by my good friend, Clay Crosse… When I Lift My Hands, … proclaiming the reality of reaching for heaven when we lift our hands and hearts to our Lord in prayer … 

Highlight Passage Mark 14: 32 [NKJV] … 

  32 Then they came to a place which was named Gethsemane; and He said to His disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” … 

 … Jesus, the night of His betrayal, took His disciples across the valley from the upper room to the Garden; and knowing what was about to transpire, the Lord went into prayer 

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Highlight Context - Mark 14: 32-42 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK … 

… Jesus, when He was concerned, retreated to the depth of His relationship with His Father in Heaven, which was always marked by prayer. 

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Reference Passage #1: Luke 6: 12 [NKJV] … 

12 Now it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. 

… Sometimes Jesus’ prayers took all night. 

Reference Passage #2: John 12: 27-28 [NKJV] … 

27 “Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. 28 Father, glorify Your name.” … 

 … Sometimes Jesus’ prayers were short and to the point of His concerns 

Reference Passage #3: John, Chapter 17 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK -  … 

 … And this was Jesus’ prayer for all His disciples, including you and me. 

My Journal for Today: Today’s Our Daily Bread devotional entry, authored by Davd Branon, illustrates that there is prayer … and then, there is PRAYER; and he uses sledding with his family as his word picture. Branon relates that his family, when the snow flies in Michigan where they live, he gathers up the plastic sleds and goes out with his grandkids to the hill behind their home to take 10 second sled runs in the freshly fallen snow. But then there were times when the family would travel farther north where they could sled for 10-20 minute runs down a mountain-side, which was much more serious and even risky sledding. 

So, as Branon points out, prayer can be like his sledding analogy. It take place quickly and spontaneously; or it can be undertaken with much more seriousness, time commitment, and concern. And that was certainly born out by Jesus’ prayer life in the New Testament; wasn’t it? And if you read and meditate on some of the moments of prayer undertaken by Christ, copied and linked above, we see that Jesus’ prayer life was at the essence of His connection with His Heavenly Father. 

 I’ve always said, “If it’s good enough for Jesus, … IT’S GOOD ENOUGH FOR ME!! 

 And so, today’s ODB devotional has me concerned (or maybe “convicted” is a better word) that I need focus in my prayer life to build a more intense connection between me and my LORD. I’ll leave the sledding analogy and Jesus’ prayer life to you to speak to how you pray to our Lord. But reading through Jesus praying about me in John, Chapter 17 convicts me that I need to be more intense and focused with my prayer to and through my Lord in the future. 

My Prayer for Today … O Lord, … Help me to come to You deeply and honestly with all of whom I am in prayer. … Amen 

Blogger Note: Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled Our Daily Bread, distributed online via email by RBC Ministries. If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you can read/study the ODB blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.