At Peace, we understand that spending time in prayer
and studying God’s Word is essential in developing a closer relationship
with Jesus Christ. In the midst of His own busy schedule, Jesus modeled
for us how to prioritize one’s time in a God-pleasing manner.
“Yet the news about him spread all the
more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of
their sicknesses. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed”
(Luke 5:15-16).
Dr. Martin Luther made it abundantly clear that for a Christian,
prayer is a necessity when he said, “Consider this command well, and
impress it on your consciousnesses, so that you will not think that you
may pray or not pray at your discretion, as though it were not a sin if
you did not pray but were sufficient to let others pray.” It has been
said before by a wise person that prayer gives us an opportunity to talk
with God while reading and meditating on His Word gives us an
opportunity to listen to God.
The famous Lutheran Pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his classic
Meditating on the Word, eloquently explains the intimacy that comes from
being in God’s Word when he says, “The entire Bible, then, is the Word
in which God allows himself to be found by us. Not a place which is
agreeable to us or makes sense to us a priori, but instead a place which
is strange to us and contrary to our nature. Yet, the very place in
which God has decided to meet us.” Through prayer, study and meditating
on God’s Word, we trust that God conforms us more into the very image
that He would have us be. Through retreats that focus on prayer and
spiritual formation, many people each year are using these amazing
experiences as an opportunity to heed God’s calling to be still and know
that He is God.