Praying alone in the presence of his disciples.!

Luke 9:18-22

One day when Jesus was praying alone in the presence of his disciples he put this question to them, ‘Who do the crowds say I am?’ And they answered, ‘John the Baptist; others Elijah; and others say one of the ancient prophets come back to life.’ ‘But you,’ he said ‘who do you say I am?’ It was Peter who spoke up. ‘The Christ of God’ he said. But he gave them strict orders not to tell anyone anything about this. ‘The Son of Man’ he said ‘is destined to suffer grievously, to be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and to be put to death, and to be raised up on the third day.’

Food for thought!

According to the Bible, Jesus prayed very often (Luke 3:21; 5:16; 6:12; 9:28 - 29; 11:1; 22:41; 23:34 , 46). Many of these times he would go off by himself to pray. In today's gospel Jesus did not go any where, but still prayed; he did not go to the mountain but still prayed; he did not go to the synagogue and yet he prayed from where he was, just by his disciples. This already teaches us something about prayer: we can pray both in the public and in the private; both in solitude and in the crowd; both in the church and in the home; both on the pews and on the cues. Yes, you too can and must pray even when you are on the Main Street, when you are in the Boardroom or classroom, or in the shop or in the office, or in the public transport or in the sitting room.



Even when done in public, prayer is a personal affair. Why? Because there are things that need to be said in prayer that do not need to be said within earshot of others, including of the devil. When we pray in private, we can have liberty to declare our hearts to the Lord. We can pray about personal, private matters that would embarrass us if others heard. We can call out the names of people that burden us in our private time of prayer. We can be honest with the Lord. We can humble ourselves before Him. We can be who we really are, for in private prayer there is no one to impress. It is our time with God! Do you keep a regular time of private prayer with the Lord?


This literally means that God is everywhere, including within us. It means that in prayer we have direct access to this God who is so near us that He is within us. WE have within us a power that is greater than anything that we shall ever contact in the outer world, a power that can overcome every obstacle in our life and set us safe, satisfied and at peace, even in the midst of noise.

Empowered by prayer, Jesus dared to ask: "Who do the crowds say I am?" Like Jesus, we all want to know who we are; we all want to know what others know about us. Like Jesus asked others to tell him about himself, let us ask Jesus to tell us about us. What does Jesus say that we are? What does Jesus say that I am? What does he say that you are? Let us face the truth: people call us many things, many names; I am many things for many people, you're many things to many people. If you asked your friends who you're, like Jesus did, you would here all kinds of answers, good and not so good; it is all guesswork because no one can tell you who you are except the Lord. He made you, he knows what you are and what you were made to do and be. To him be praise and honour and glory and praise, both now and forever. Amen.