March 18, 2019

Monday after the Second Week in Lent

He came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives; and the disciples followed him. When he reached the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not come into the time of trial.” Luke 22:39-40

“As was his custom” are the words that jumped off the page for me when I read this passage. Earlier in Chapter 21:37, we are told “everyday he was teaching in the temple, and at night he would go out and spend the night on the Mount of Olives, as it was called.” Jesus had an established pattern to his life. In many places in Scripture, we are told that he often retreated to places alone after a hard day of ministering to the people, in which crowds were pressing in on him and begging him to heal them. It was his custom. It was his spiritual habit. He needed to be alone, to re-ground himself, to refocus on his mission and purpose of his life.

What are your spiritual habits, the habits of your heart? Do you take the time in the busy-ness of life to step away from it all? Do you have any spiritual customs that you can’t live without?