“Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, He got up, went out, and made His way to a deserted place. And He prayed there.” Mark 1:35 Everyone today has an agenda. It doesn’t matter where you look you see agendas. Board meetings have agendas. Politicians have agendas. Individuals have agendas.
Encarta Dictionary gives several definitions for the word agenda: a formal list of things to be done in a specific order, especially a list of things to be discussed at a meeting; the various matters that somebody needs to deal with at a specific time; and an underlying personal viewpoint or bias.
The truth is that everyone’s life is dictated by some kind or someone’s agenda. When we study the New Testament we see that Jesus’ life was guided by an agenda. This agenda was God the Father’s agenda.
In our lives as Christians the truth is we should, no we are commanded to pattern our lives, even emulate our lives after that of Christ’s. The word emulate means to imitate them with the idea of matching their success. Our desire as followers of Christ ought to be to have the same success as Jesus had in knowing the Father’s agenda.
When we look at the life of Christ we see that his secret was that he prayed. The New Testament reveals that every time Jesus faced a major decision, He prayed. When he was being tempted to do things by the world’s methods, He prayed.
When Jesus was faced with choosing His disciples, He prayed the entire night. What an interesting thought, if the Son of God needed to pray for the entire night to know what the Father wanted Him to choose. We need to ask, how long we, mortal, finite human beings, should pray to know what the Father’s agenda is for our lives.
What an arrogant, self-righteous attitude to think that all we need is two minutes of prayer and then we know exactly what the Father’s agenda is for our life. Think about how many mistakes and bad decisions and how many times you would not have missed God’s agenda if you would have prayed through the night.
Churches need to think about this. When it is time to seek a pastor, if they would realize that the only thing that matters is who is the man that God wants and would pray through the night and seek God’s will, things would be better.
Prayer is what Jesus used to set His agenda. Prayer preceded miracles. It was prayer that brought Him encouragement at critical moments in His life. It was prayer that enabled him to go to the Cross; and it was prayer that kept Him there.
It was common knowledge among the disciples that during the early morning hours, they would find Jesus praying. When they needed Him, they knew to go to the place of prayer. Even Judas when he betrayed Jesus led the Roman Soldiers and Pharisees to Jesus’ place of prayer.
Think about it. The truth is He was able to face those next trying and painful days, because He had been with the Father in prayer and knew what His agenda was.
You and I need to give it some serious consideration in following Jesus’s example, and let your time alone with God, in prayer (even if it is all night long) set the agenda for our lives..
