Mark 1:35, commentary and pictures

After a night spent healing crowds with no rest, He rose long before daylight, left the sleeping town alone, and withdrew to a secluded place to pray. His prayer was fervent and audible, so that those searching for Him could follow His voice to find Him. Sharing human weakness, He depended wholly on the Father, finding in communion the comfort, wisdom, strength and power needed for duty, trial, conflict and daily temptation without defeat. Refreshed morning by morning, He returned to patient toil among the poor and afflicted and then moved on to preach in other cities rather than remaining where He was. His pattern proves that finite, erring human beings who have no strength in themselves must give time to earnest private prayer at the day's start for pardon, strength and the Spirit's life for successful work.

Setting and Actions

After an evening and night spent healing the sick while crowds kept bringing more with no time for rest, he rose a great while before day, left the sleeping city alone, and departed into a solitary, secluded place to pray. The rest was brief after exhausting labor and responsibility, yet he withdrew long before daylight to seek quiet, uninterrupted communion with the Father. That withdrawal to mountains and other solitary places in the early morning or evening, sometimes continuing through the entire night, came before returning to work among the people and continuing healing and preaching in other towns.

His prayer there was fervent and earnest, poured out with strong appeals to God. It was audible, so that Simon and the others searching for him could hear his voice and follow its sound to find him. His disciples heard him praying alone after separating himself from them, and in hearing were learning his methods to follow in the same line of work.

On the morning he delivered the Sermon on the Mount, he was near Capernaum on the shore of Lake Gennesaret, engaged in meditation and prayer before daybreak. There he refreshed spiritual strength through communion with God, rising long before daybreak to seek a solitary place for meditation and prayer.

Habit of Prayer

Rising long before daylight to withdraw to a solitary place and pray was His regular habit, not an occasional act, even when burdened with labor and responsibility. He sought quiet, uninterrupted communion with the Father in secluded places in nature, in desert places set apart for that purpose. Those retreats were often in the mountains or lonely groves, sought in the early morning before daybreak or in the evening after the day's work and cares were over.

When the press of the day's work left Him no time, He took the night for prayer, often spending it in prayer and meditation in the mountains. Sometimes He spent entire nights in communion with the Father, praying, meditating, and interceding for humanity. After dismissing the people to rest He would thus pray through the night so He could renew His work in the morning, returning to active work at daybreak and coming forth at sunrise to bring light to the world.

His quiet hours were not prayer alone but also thinking about God, meditating, and searching the Scriptures, often amid nature in secluded places. The early morning was given to this communion, to study of the Bible and prayer to His heavenly Father before returning to His duties in patient, faithful toil. This withdrawing for communion began in childhood, when He spent quiet hours in nature meditating, searching the Scriptures, and praying.

Strength Prayer Provided

Sharing human needs and weaknesses, he depended wholly on God, and prayer was both necessity and privilege in his human nature. He sought communion with his Father for comfort and divine strength to meet duty and trial, conflict and opposition, and the daily temptations that pressed upon him. His example shows that those who have no strength in themselves cannot safely live without earnest prayer for pardon and strength to resist temptation.

Prayer to his Father strengthened him for his work and his conflicts and preserved his oneness with infinite power, so that though tempted in all points as human beings are he gained no defeat. In hours of solitary prayer, long before day and sometimes through entire nights, he talked with God first, laying hold of the promises by pleading, and thus was made ready to meet his disciples. There he received wisdom and power, with the energy, perseverance, and steadfastness needed to bless others.

That communion brought comfort and joy, with peace, freshness, life, and power. After hours alone with God he returned morning by morning ready to impart life and bring heaven's light to people, coming back to his work with peace upon his face. This sustained him through weariness and conflict and through incessant labor in ministering to pressing crowds and exposing treacherous sophistry, labor that often left him so utterly wearied that even his mother and brothers and his disciples feared his life would be sacrificed.

His early prayer was communion with his Father that prepared and renewed him to continue serving and to renew his work in the morning. It followed days spent preaching to crowds and healing the sick and nights when, after dismissing the people to rest, he often spent the night in prayer.

Ministry Renewed After Prayer

After solitary prayer He did not settle down to remain with the people where He had already preached, but moved on to publish the truth in other cities that had not yet heard it. He let the message already delivered do its work, leaving those who had received it to build upon it while He went to other places. That quiet time of prayer therefore came directly before He continued His work of healing and preaching in other towns.

He returned from communion to His duties in patient, faithful toil among the people. His early hours had been given to thinking about God, meditating and searching the Scriptures, sometimes amid nature, and to prayer, and afterward He took up His work again. Coming forth morning by morning from hours spent alone with God, at times through the night until sunrise, He brought heaven's light to men to dispel moral darkness through the light reflected from Him. His days were then passed in ministering to the pressing crowds with sympathy for the poor, ignorant, and afflicted to lift fallen humanity, and in exposing the treacherous sophistry of the rabbis. That incessant labor often left Him so utterly wearied that His mother and brothers and even His disciples feared His life would be sacrificed, yet from the hours of prayer He returned with a look of peace upon His face.

Example for Believers

After laboring late into the night to relieve the sick, He rose well before daybreak, went away alone, and prayed, for His ministry did not replace time in prayer but even after exhausting work sought quiet, uninterrupted communion with God. Though burdened with labor and responsibility and sharing human needs and weaknesses, He depended wholly on God and sought divine strength in prayer to meet duty and trial, to make His requests known to the Father, and to renew His work in the morning after preaching and healing. Prayer to His Father strengthened Him for His work and conflicts and preserved His oneness with Infinite Power, so that though tempted in all points like human beings Satan obtained no victory over Him. Communion with God brought comfort and joy and equipped Him to impart life to others, and His early morning solitary prayer is the pattern by which prayer will strengthen every soul who comes to the Father in faith. His example teaches that earnest prayer and close communion with God give strength for continued labor, showing the importance and value of private, earnest prayer even devoted after the day's work and cares were over while others sought rest.

As the world's Redeemer He was the example in all things in prayer, spending much time alone in prayer and often separating Himself to pour out His requests to the Father in mountains and desert places. Even the Son of God deemed prayer needful for His work, which proves that finite, erring human beings need prayer far more. They have no strength in themselves and cannot safely live without earnest prayer for pardon and strength to resist temptation. Without it their minds are drawn away from God and their thoughts and views of God are intercepted by influences calculated to do so.

Those who work for God should set aside time to pray alone with God and take time to seek prayerfully the grace, help, and efficiency only He can give. Doing so opens the mind to receive the impressions of the Holy Spirit so the heart is revived by a fresh supply of life for successful work. In early morning communion with His Father He found strength for the duties and trials ahead, and dedicating each day to God at its start brings strength to resist temptation and keeps believers by His power. Believers must follow Him by seeking God for themselves and pleading with Him alone, even going to the seaside in the early morning if needed and giving hours to communion with God. From Him alone comes strength to receive His richest blessing and carry it away, to be as a light shining in a dark place to win souls for God, and to have the peace of God in the heart as a living abiding principle while putting away fault-finding and complaint.

Youth are to follow His example by finding at dawn and twilight a quiet season for communion with their Father in heaven and by lifting up their hearts to God throughout the day, trusting His promise to hold the right hand and help at every step. In hours of solitary prayer in His earth-life He received wisdom and power, and learning this communion in the morning of their years brings freshness and power and joy and sweetness into life. He prayed when He could get a little time for strength and power to endure in His humanity united with His divinity so He could keep healing the sick and suffering wherever He found them after laboring all day while crowds kept bringing more into the night with no time for rest. His disciples heard Him praying and were learning His methods to follow in the same line of work, and though believers may not work the miracles He worked they are to follow that pattern by being attentive to the sick and suffering instead of closing themselves up for their own comfort, with His heart.