Solitude*

Luke 5:16 "And he (Jesus) withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed." Solitude is something we all need. Time to be alone with God. In this scripture, even Jesus withdrew to be alone, and the last part of this scripture says "and prayed". I remember different times in my life of trying to be alone to pray and meditate on God / his word. One of my earliest memories of my whole life was when I was probably about 4 or 5, I mustn't have been in school yet. My dad was hauling dirt out into the country and dumping it off from a basement he was digging at our house in Bismark N.D. When dad got thru unloading the dirt, the truck wouldn't start. Dad was angry and I as a 4 or 5-year-old got scared when dad got angry.  I pulled to the side a little ways and prayed "God let this truck start". I believe it was an answer to that prayer simply because I still remember that incident after all these years. In my teen years, working on the farm. I would be out in a  field driving a tractor, cultivating corn or whatever I was doing and I had solitude with God. I could talk to him out loud, sing praises whatever and no one except God could hear me.  I remember those times.  As a young man in my twenties and living on Hiway Place in Everett WA, I remember going for a walk up Hiway Place and talking with God as I walked. I felt like I was struggling at the time spiritually but when I look back, they were some precious times. Making long trips, I would talk to God as I was driving, just me and God. Those were precious times, just me and God. Now a lot of times I wake very early in the morning and will go out to the living room and sit in my chair and talk to God or just meditate. I need solitude with just God and me I. We need solitude with just God and us. It is a time when God can speak to us. A pastor was saying, we need time with God each day, unhurried and uninterrupted. Solitude gives God time to work on our hearts. That after all is what God wants in us, our heart. God looks on the heart, not on our stature or our handsome good looks, but at/in our heart. When God chose David to be King over Israel, it was in his heart, God saw something. It wasn't his age, he was the youngest, he wasn't the tallest, Samuel the Prophet was looking at David's older brother said surely this is the one God chose. But God says, I don't look like a man looks, I look on the heart. God saw something in David's heart that he chose him over all seven of his older brothers. What does God see in our hearts?  We need solitude with God and allow God to work in our hearts.  God Bless, LVZ.