Becoming A Person Of Prayer

When he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray. (Matthew 14:23)
 
Yesterday we talked about how even though Peter was in prison and on death row, he was able to be at peace enough to sleep. The question emerges then, how could a man under these circumstances go to sleep? How could he rest when he had a death sentence over his head and guards chained to his arms?  
 
Well, I believe it is because Peter was a person of prayer. Peter came a long way after he met the Lord. He had anger management issues. He cut a guy’s ear off because he got angry. He denied Jesus 3 times. He lost faith while walking on water to Jesus. But this is a different Peter now. He heard Jesus teach about prayer and then he observed Jesus actually bow down and pray. He saw Jesus pray in the Garden of Gethsemane and I believe he learned that public power starts with private prayer. Jesus modeled that for us.  
 
In Matthew 4, Jesus got victory over the devil in public because he spent time alone with God in the wilderness in private. In the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6:6, Jesus said, “whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” Matthew 14:23 says, “when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray.” And so, the power of prayer doesn’t start corporately in the church, it starts privately.  
 
Jesus’ public power started with private prayer. That’s how he was able to cast out demons, heal the sick, feed the multitude, raise the dead, and endure the Cross, with nails in his hands and feet and a crown of thorns on his head. He did all that in public because He spent time with God in private. And if you want public power, you’re going to need to spend time in private prayer.