“A desolate place…” Part 1: Our Need

There are seasons of life where 2 minutes without an appointment, an email, a phone call, or some other responsibility seems like yelling “Time out!” in the middle of a Civil War battle.  How do we respond in the rough and tumble of life, when our schedules and relationships come like wave upon wave upon the shore of our soul?  While the differences between Jesus and us are crucial ones, there is surely something to be brought into our own life that Jesus does at an early point in his ministry:

“And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed” (Mark 1:35).

Our lives do not have the same import as the Son of God, and our responsibilities will not be as strategic as those of Jesus, but we also miss something of this text if we do not see here the principle that if Jesus needed such a “desolate place,” I do, too. 

How often we make the mistake of thinking that we are God and therefore don’t need our Creator to live a successful, happy, and meaningful life.  Wrong.  So wrong.  Part of the mystery of the incarnation is that Jesus while remaining the all-sufficient God, also lived a life of dependence upon the Father.  And that dependence included this regular practice of retreating to a “desolate place” to pray. 

The result of this prayer time was a focusing of his mission to “go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out” (Mark 1:38).  In Luke 6:12 we read that “he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God.”  The result here was the choosing of the twelve apostles (6:13-16). 

 Perhaps these two brief incidents in the life of Christ can serve as a kind of paradigm for us to see our own retreats to a “desolate place.”  Jesus sought the Father for clarity in his unique mission as the Son of God.  He preached the kingdom of God and called apostles that would go on to be the “foundation” of God’s church itself (Eph 2:20-22).  Yet, he prayed in preparation and anticipation of these aspects of his ministry.

Our lives do not have such representative moments, where a decision will lead to a chapter in salvation history.  Yet, we must see that we live as creatures and sinners and thus entirely dependent upon God as our Creator and our Savior.  Our dependence must be reflected in the same way that Jesus’ was, in our retreats to a “desolate place”–not to find an “escape,” but to find God.

There we find wisdom as we find God.  There we find perseverance as we find God.  There we find hope as we find God.  There we find clarity as we find God.  There we find life as we find God.

We’ll take some time and look at this subject of our devotional life, a life of regular retreating to pursue God.  For now let’s be reminded of our great need.

 DJB