A Prayer about Finding Rest in Prayer
A Prayer about Finding Rest in Prayer
…and they found him and said to him, “Everyone is looking for you.” Mark 1:37
Rest-giving Jesus,
Today we return to our theme
of finding rest in an anxious world.
As we witness what you did,
empower us to do the same:
You rose very early in the morning,
and you went “out to a desolate place,”
and you prayed (Mark 1:35).
Lord, one thing is clear —
we need to find quiet.
In order to find rest,
we must be intentional
about getting away from the noisy demands
of our cell phones
and our self-talk,
of our crying babies
and our screaming inboxes.
Why must we get quiet?
Because if we do not,
we cannot hear you singing
your delight over us (Zephaniah 3:14-17).
If we do not get quiet,
we cannot “stay on purpose,”
as Vanessa pointed out in her talk*.
If we don’t get quiet,
when people come to us with their demands,
“Everyone is looking for you”
(bosses, employees,
friends, spouses,
children, grandchildren….),
we will puff up with pride and think,
“Oh, how important I am!”
But you did not puff up with pride
when your disciples told you that.
No, you “stayed on purpose,”
and you refused to yield
to someone else’s purpose for you
that was not your God-given purpose.
You said, “Let us go on to the next towns,
that I may preach there also,
for that is why I came out” (Mark 1:38).
Precious Jesus,
forgive us for getting distracted,
for not listening to
your voice,
to the Father’s voice,
to the Spirit’s voice.
Forgive us for hearing the demands and applause of “everyone”
and thinking we must do as they say.
Help us in our desperate weakness
to follow you,
to do our Father’s will.
In your praying name. Amen.
Read Mark 1:35-39.
This prayer, like yesterday’s, was inspired by a talk given at the PCA women’s ministers leadership training by Vanessa Hawkins.
![When’s the last time you highlighted your weakness?
Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 2 Cor. 12:10
All-Powerful God,
We confess,
we in Western culture
crave power, control, and independence.
The last thing we want
is to seem weak.
And yet, weakness is the way of Christ,
so it must be our way as well.
The apostle Paul understood that,
so in the face of accusations
that he wasn’t an apostle,
he countered the boasting of the “super-apostles”
with some boasting of his own:
“If I must boast,
I will boast of the things
that show my weakness” (2 Cor. 11:30).
And then he mentions how he was lowered in a basket through the window of a wall in Damascus, of all places,
a place he went to persecute Jews only to be knocked down on the road,
struck blind, by his Lord and Savior himself.
Paul shares many other weaknesses in 2 Corinthians,
a book that’s all about weakness as the way
of followers of Christ.
He asked that you would relieve him from a “thorn in the flesh,”
but you did not.
Instead, you said,
“My grace is sufficient for you,
for my power is made perfect in your weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9).
Lord, we know we really are weak —
[for each of these areas, name any weaknesses you have]
weak in our bodies,
weak in our work,
weak in our wills,
weak in our faith,
weak in our hope,
weak in our love.
We believe
that you your power is made perfect
in and through our weakness.
Help our unbelief.
In Jesus’s name. Amen.
Read 2 Corinthians 11:30-12:10.
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