Today's Bible reading is the 5th chapter of the Book of Luke. You can read it here at Bible Gateway:http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+5&version=NASB

This is one of those chapters of scripture that one could spend much time pondering the various things that are recorded for us. There is the calling of Peter, James and John to be "fishers of men".
There is the cleansing of the leper and Jesus both healing the paralytic man and forgiving his sins. There is the calling of Matthew, the tax gatherer. And we read about prayer, fasting and the parable of the wineskins.

But there is one verse that seemed to catch my attention as I read the chapter today that I would like to share a couple of thoughts on. It is verse 16 and it simply says, "But Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray." There is so much that we can learn when we consider the life that Jesus lived and the manner in which He conducted Himself. By example, He speaks of our need to "slip away to the wilderness and pray". No, we need not necessarily go to a wilderness characterized by mountains, trees, lakes, rivers or even deserts. But we do need to slip away to a quiet place in our heart and mind to pray. There are times when an actual quite place is quite helpful although sometimes that opportunity is not readily available. Whatever the case, we must slip away to for this purpose of prayer and like Jesus, we must slip away often. May we consider this wonderful example that Jesus has given us in today's passage and "slip away to the wilderness and pray".