Time To Be Alone

There are several instances in the New Testament when the Savior took time to be alone, to get rest and to commune with His Father.  Most of His ministry was spent among the people serving, teaching, and blessing, but even as the Son of God He still needed time to rejuvenate and to be by Himself. 

After healing many people in Galilee, He rose “a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed” (Mark 1:35).  After John the Baptist was killed by Herod, the apostles gathered together with Jesus and he said to them, “Come ye yourselves apart into a solitary place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat” (Mark 6:31).  Perhaps He was mourning the death of His cousin John and He needed to be able to rest and pray. On another occasion after He had healed many people and cast out devils we read that “he departed and went into a solitary place.”  Even then, “the people sought him, and came unto him, and stayed him, that he should not depart from them” (Luke 4:42). Because He drew so much attention, it was very hard for him to get rest or to be alone.  Matthew records that after He miraculously fed the people one day, He sent the multitudes away and “went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone” (Matthew 14:23).  He much have cherished time that He could spend His Father alone, and perhaps the Father was still teaching Him about His divine mission on earth and preparing Him for what was coming.  Luke wrote of another time when He was “alone praying, and John told how when the people wanted to make Him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone” (Luke 9:18, John 6:15).  All of these references underline the principle that we must take time to recharge and to be alone in prayer and thought.  If we are always in a hurry and on the go, we may miss what the Lord is waiting to teach us.  President Uchtdorf taught in a recent general conference, “Sad to say, we even wear our busyness as a badge of honor, as though being busy, by itself, was an accomplishment or sign of a superior life. Is it?”  (October 2012).  The Savior’s life could certainly be described as one that was busy, but He still found the time to put aside the doings of the day, be alone, and pray to the Father.  That’s likely at least part of what gave Him such great strength to accomplish what was required.  As always, in this He was a model to follow.