“But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” Luke 5:16

At the height of His popularity, we’re told by Luke that “Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” Why did He do this? First and foremost, He withdrew to “lonely places” because He wanted to be alone with God, free from distraction and competing priorities.

Jesus wanted alone time with God because He sought communion and fellowship with God the Father. He wanted everything He did as a human being to be 100% focused on and in sync with God’s perfect plan and purposes. When we pray with that focus we are drawn into worship and into intimacy with God Almighty.

This intimate communion and fellowship opens the door for us to hear from God. And that’s such an important part of prayer. We don’t pray to inform God; we pray to hear from God and to bring our plans and requests into alignment with His perfect will. Jesus did petition God, but always in accordance with God’s will. For example, in John 17 Jesus prays a beautiful and powerful prayer for His disciples and for all future believers who would come to God through their testimony.

While not many of Jesus’ prayers are recorded, we can assume that He prayed the scriptures, as a means for both praising and petitioning God in accordance with His will. Spend time in the word of God and you will find yourself praying the scriptures too, and as you do, you’ll more fully experience the power of God and the guidance of the Holy Spirit in applying them to your life and circumstances.

Jesus gave us a good model to follow. The busier you are, the more popular you are, the greater the challenges you face, the more you need to withdraw to lonely places to pray.