Press Pause/Press Play

Day 1

We all live busy lives. Your type of busy may be work or school oriented – always trying to make the grade or get the promotion. It may be extra-curricular activities or hobbies – playing on a sports team or a getting your home photography business off the ground. Maybe you just want to enjoy life so your schedule is filled up with recreation – travelling, video games, social media or binging the next big show. Every day we wake up and press play on the next 24 hours of busy activity just to repeat it again and again.

Jesus lived a busy life too. He traveled all over ancient Judea teaching, healing people and making waves everywhere he went. And the more he did, the more people wanted from him. In Mark 1 we find Jesus after having spent a long and busy day teaching and healing people. The sun was setting as afternoon slipped into evening, and a tired Jesus was ready to call it a day. The problem was that as people heard what he was doing, more and more of them kept coming to him for help. Mark tells us the whole town came out to the house he was staying in, bringing him people who needed help well into the night

Early the next morning everyone came back looking for Jesus. They wanted him to do more! Have you ever felt like that? Like the demands on your life and time are so great that no matter what you finish there is always more you need to do? That your kids, teacher or boss just want more from you than you can give? Jesus understood the pressure cooker of a busy and demanding life, and he had a solution.

Jesus understood that in order to effectively press play, we have to press pause.

How did Jesus press pause? He regularly got away from the demands of his disciples and the crowds to pray. Look at how it is described in Mark 1:

Before daybreak the next morning, Jesus got up and went out to an isolated place to pray.
Mark 1:35

After an exhaustingly busy day, Jesus had to press pause and spend time with his heavenly father in prayer so he could go out and press play again. Whatever your responsibility or the demands on your time, God is calling you to press pause and reset with him. He wants you to have a life of purpose and meaning, and when we press pause before we press play he equips us, empowers us, and guides us into the busyness of our day with the strength we need to be effective. After Jesus prayed, God gave him the direction to go to a new town and the empowerment to help more people without burning himself out.

Do you feel the weight of all you need to do? Is your calendar full of events? Are you pressing play in your life every day without being renewed and restored? Do you want to know what God wants you to do and be empowered by him to do it? It’s time to do what Jesus did and build a regular habit of pressing pause in prayer.

That evening after sunset, many sick and demon-possessed people were brought to Jesus. The whole town gathered at the door to watch. So Jesus healed many people who were sick with various diseases, and he cast out many demons. But because the demons knew who he was, he did not allow them to speak. Before daybreak the next morning, Jesus got up and went out to an isolated place to pray. Later Simon and the others went out to find him. When they found him, they said, “Everyone is looking for you.” But Jesus replied, “We must go on to other towns as well, and I will preach to them, too. That is why I came.” So he traveled throughout the region of Galilee, preaching in the synagogues and casting out demons.
Mark 1:32-39