Tuesday; August 25

Jesus was having one of those days. He had recently learned abut the death of His kinsman and co-laborer, John the Baptist. He had been inundated by crowds of people who came to hear Him and have Him heal the sick. He’d had to problem-solve and feed thousands of people with five loaves and two fish. But, His most impressive accomplishment was still to come. So, what did He do? He loaded His disciples in a boat and, “After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray.” (Matthew 14:23). Then, He did the unimaginable – not only did He walk on water, He helped Peter stroll on the lake with Him! That’s a pretty full day!

A lot of lessons have come from Matthew 14, but one that is often overlooked was Jesus’ need to spend some time in solitude and prayer. The Lord accomplished a lot, but He made sure to rejuvenate Himself to be ready for the next challenges in His life.
We live in a noisy, busy time. We have convinced ourselves that we need to multitask. We are constantly surrounded by the din of opinions and observations. We fill our off-time with continual activities. Is it any wonder we are worn out? We are often too busy doing too many things to do any of them up to our potential. Let’s overcome the temptation to ignore our need for quiet reflection and prayer. If Jesus needed to recharge, what does that say about us? (Come to think of it, wasn’t that the whole purpose behind the Old Testament Sabbath?) When we purposefully take time to restore our spirit we can and will be able to do more – and do it better.
Think About It!

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