“And He withdrew Himself into the wilderness, and prayed” (Luke 5:16).

 The elderly pastor who was dearly beloved by his congregation was retiring. He had faithfully served the Lord for over sixty years. Now his body was very frail and his mind was not nearly as strong as it had once been. He stood before his church family and quietly spoke to them. The old pastor said, “The Lord has been so very faithful to me. He has blessed me and given me opportunities to serve Him that I never dreamed when I first entered the ministry. As I look back on my ministry I can honestly say that I have enjoyed writing thousands of messages. I have been privileged to visit in hundreds and hundreds of homes. I have stood at the bedside of hundreds of people in the hospital. I am a man who has been very busy serving the Lord. But as I look back on my lifetime, I wish I would have spent more time alone with the Lord. I see now that my busyness could not and did not replace the time that I could have invested in prayer. I want to challenge you that busyness never replaces the blessedness of prayer.” With that the old man left the platform, and it seemed like a holy hush fell over that congregation. What will you be doing today? I’m sure that you and I will be busy. Don’t forget to invest time with the Lord Jesus in prayer. He was very intentional in His prayer life and so we must be as well.

 For today: Busy, but not too busy to pray!