Alone With God

“And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there.” Matthew 14:23

We’ve so often heard this Scripture taught in the context of our desperate need to be refilled for all that God calls us to be and do. If Jesus, as fully man, knew His need of time alone with His Father, how much more should we know our own need? If Jesus sought solitude, how much more must we seek solitude?

It’s true—we need the strong dose of spiritual reality that comes with private communion with God. We need a place of no distraction in order to take a good, hard, perhaps painful look at our own lives. We need quiet to seek His will in so many areas of life.

But as I pondered this today, I realize that something crucial is missing from the exhortation to “get alone to pray.” What should, perhaps, draw us to Him is a passion for time spent with God, seeking His very presence with us, knowing the fiery zeal for Him that seems to come only after seeking and waiting and reaching out for Him. It’s a holy friendship, but so much more. He is our Father in heaven, the One who loves always and perfectly, the One who calls out to us to come, come, come.

Jesus had all that in heaven with the Father from the beginning. There was no lapse in their fellowship, no lull in their conversation, no awkward silence because they hadn’t been together in a while. No, their fellowship was unbroken—and when Jesus was born on earth, He sought the Father’s fellowship with Him as often as He could. He loved to be with His Father.

We don’t know much about what the two of them talked about. But knowing my own imperfect intimacy with the Father, I can imagine that their fellowship was sweet and serious and relevant, full of the Father’s love and tenderness, encouraging, releasing, imparting, guiding, ever filling, ever satisfying. Oh, that we would know this same togetherness!

“You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalms 16:11). We may not realize it, but God’s presence is what we crave. May I exhort you to seek Him just for Himself—not for what He gives, but for who He is among us.

There’s sweet honey flowing from that Rock, friends. Taste and see!

Our Father, how we long for Your presence. We desire to pant only after You. We look to You for all that You are—some things known to us, and so many other things as yet unknown. Let this be our heart’s cry every day. We come to You in the name of Jesus. Amen.