The Benefits of Praying Alone to God (Praying Through the Bible #161)

TEXT: Luke 6:12-16

One day, a telephone repairman was working on fixing the telephone lines in a church. As he worked, he heard the pastor talking to two of the deacons about the most effective praying position. The pastor shared that he felt the key was in the hands.  He always held his hands together and pointed them upward as a form of symbolic worship.  The first deacon suggested that real prayer was conducted on your knees.  The second deacon said that they both had it wrong -- the only position worth praying in was while stretched out flat on your face.  At this time, the telephone repairman couldn't stay out of the conversation any longer.  He said, "I have found that the most powerful prayer I ever prayed was while I was dangling upside down by my heels from a power pole, suspended forty feet above the ground."
 
Sometimes, it takes a dramatic incident to force us to our prayer closets, or to our knees, or even on our faces in prayer to God. However, the Gospels testify to the fact that Jesus made spending time alone with God a regular part of his life. We see it again in this passage from Luke 6. In the midst of the great work he was doing, Jesus always took the time to get alone with God and spend time praying to Him. From this passage, we notice three benefits of making time to pray alone.