In His life of secret prayer, too, my Saviour is my example. He could not maintain the heavenly life in His soul without continually separating Himself from man, and communing with His Father. The heavenly life in me has the same need of entire separation from man – the need not only of single moments, but of time enough for fellowship with the Fountain of Life, the Father in heaven.

The event which so attracted the attention of His disciples happened at the beginning of His public ministry. In the silence of the night, Jesus had gone out to seek a place of solitude in the wilderness. When the disciples found Him there, He was still praying.

Why did the Saviour need these hours of prayer? Did He not know the blessedness of silently lifting up his soul to God in the midst of the most pressing business? Did the Father not dwell in Him? And did He not, in the depth of His heart, enjoy unbroken communion with Him? Yes, that hidden life was indeed His portion. But that life, as subject to the law of humanity, had need of continual refreshing and renewing from the fountain. It was a life of dependence. Just because it was strong and true, it could not bear the loss of direct and constant communion with the Father, with whom and in whom it had its being and its blessedness.

What a lesson for every Christian! Much fellowship with man is dissipating and dangerous to our spiritual life. It brings us under the influence of the visible and temporal. Nothing can atone for the loss of secret and direct communion with God. Even work in the service of God is exhausting. We cannot continue to bless others without renewing our power from above. I need every day to have communion with my Father in secret. Like Christ, my life is hid in heaven, in God. It needs time day by day to be fed from heaven. It is from heaven alone that the power to lead a heavenly life on earth can come.

And what may have been the prayers that occupied our Lord there so long? If I could hear Him pray, how I might learn how I too must pray! God be praised! We have more than one of His prayers recorded, that in them, we might learn to follow His holy example. In the high-priestly prayer (Jn. 17) we hear Him speak, as in the deep calm of heaven, to His Father. In His Gethsemane prayer, a few hours later, we see Him calling out of the depths of trouble and darkness unto God. In these two prayers we have all: the highest and the deepest there is to be found in the communion of prayer between Father and Son.

In both these prayers, we see how He addresses God. Each time it is Father! O My Father! In that word lies the secret of all prayer. The Lord knew that He was a Son, and that the Father loved Him. With that word, He placed Himself in the full light of the Father’s countenance. This was to Him the greatest need and greatest blessing of prayer – to enter into the full enjoyment of the Father’s love. Let it be thus with me, too. Let the principle part of my prayer be the holy silence and adoration of faith, in which I wait on God until He reveals Himself to me, and gives me, through His Spirit, the loving assurance that He looks down on me as a Father – that I am well pleasing to Him.

He who, in prayer, does not have time in quietness of soul, and in full consciousness of its meaning to say Abba Father, has missed the best part of prayer. It is in prayer that the witness of the Spirit – that we are children of God and that the Father draws nigh and delights in us – must be exercised and strengthened. “If our heart condemn us not, then we have confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we obey His commandments, and do the things that are pleasing in His sight” (1 Jn. 3:21).

In both these prayers, I also see what He desired: that the Father may be glorified. He speaks: “I have glorified Thee; glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee.” That, most assuredly, was the spirit of every prayer – the entire surrender of Himself only to live for the Father’s will and glory. All that He asked had only one object, that God might be glorified. In this, too, He is my example. I must seek to have the spirit of each prayer I offer: “Father, bless Your child, and glorify Your grace in me, only so that I may glorify You.” Everything in the universe must show forth God’s glory. The Christian who is inspired with this thought, and avails himself of prayer to express it until he is thoroughly imbued with it, will have power in prayer. Even of His work in heaven our Lord says: “Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (Jn. 14:13). O my soul, learn from your Saviour before you pour out your desires in prayer, first to yield yourself as a whole burnt offering, with the one object that God may be glorified in you.

Then, you have sure ground on which to pray. You will feel the strong desire, as well as the full liberty, to ask the Father that in each part of Christ’s example – in each feature of His image – you may be made like Him, so that God may be glorified. You will understand how, only in continually renewed prayer, the soul can surrender itself to wait for God to work in it what will be to His glory.

Because Jesus surrendered Himself so entirely to the glory of His Father, He was worthy to be our Mediator. He could, in His high-priestly prayer, ask such great blessings for His people. Learn like Jesus to seek only God’s glory in prayer, and you will become a true intercessor, who can not only approach the throne of grace with his own needs, but can also pray for others the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man that avails much. He who in every prayer makes God’s glory the chief object will also, if God calls him to it, have strength for the prayer of Gethsemane, “Thy will be done.”

Every prayer of Christ was intercession because He had given himself for us. All He asked and received was in our interest. Every prayer He prayed was in the spirit of self-sacrifice. Give yourself, too, wholly to God for man, and, as with Jesus, so with us, the entire sacrifice of ourselves to God in every prayer of daily life is the only preparation for those single hours of soul struggle in which we may be called to some special act of surrender of the will that costs us tears and anguish. But, he who has learned the former will surely receive strength for the latter.

O my brethren, if you and I want to be like Jesus, we must especially contemplate Jesus praying alone in the wilderness. That is the secret of His wonderful life. What He did and spoke to man was first spoken and lived through with the Father. In communion with Him, the anointing with the Holy Spirit was each day renewed. He who desires to be like Him in his walk and conversation, must simply begin by following Jesus into solitude. Even though it might cost the sacrifice of night rest, of business, of fellowship with friends, the time must be found to be alone with the Father.

Besides the ordinary hour of prayer he will feel, at times, irresistibly drawn to enter into the holy place, and not to come away until it has once again be revealed to him that God is his portion. In his secret chamber, with closed door, or in the solitude of the wilderness, God must be found every day and our fellowship with Him renewed. If Christ needed it, how much more we! What it was to Him, it will be for us.

What it was to Him is apparent from what is written of His baptism: “It came to pass, that Jesus also being baptised, and praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon Him; and a voice came from heaven which said, Thou art My beloved Son; in Thee I am well pleased” (Lk. 3:21-22). Yes, this will be to us the blessing of prayer: the opened heaven, the baptism of the Spirit, the Father’s voice, and the blessed assurance of His love and good pleasure. As with Jesus, so with us; from above, must it all come in answer to prayer.

Christlike praying in secret will be the secret of Christlike living in public. O let us rise and avail ourselves of our wonderful privilege – the Christlike boldness of access into the Father’s presence, the Christlike liberty with God in prayer.

Prayer: “O my blessed Lord, You have called me and I have followed You, that I may bear Your image in all things. Daily, I seek Your footsteps that I may be led by You wherever You go. This day, I have found them, wet with the dew of night, leading to the wilderness. There, I have seen You kneeling for hours before the Father. There, I have heard You, too, in prayer. You gave up all to the Father’s glory, and from the Father You ask, expect, and receive all. Impress, I beseech You, this wonderful vision deep in my soul: my Saviour rising up a great while before day to seek communion with His Father, and to ask and obtain in prayer all that He needed for His life and work. O my Lord, who am I that I may thus listen to You? Yes, who am I that You call me to pray, even as You have done? Precious Saviour, from the depths of my heart I beseech You, awaken in me the same strong need of secret prayer. Convince me more deeply that, as with You so with me, the divine life cannot attain its full growth without much secret communion with my heavenly Father, so that my soul may indeed dwell in the light of His countenance. Let this conviction awaken in me such burning desire that I may not rest until each day afresh my soul has been baptised in the streams of heavenly love. O You my Example and Intercessor, teach me to pray like You! Amen”