Day to day life feels like a battle! Many things fight for our attention and we often run ourselves ragged trying to attend to it all.

But a life strategy of “withdraw and advance” is vitally important, even Jesus followed it. Jesus was doing a lot of teaching and healing, in fact the crowds were so large that he had to sit on a boat in Luke 5 while he taught the people. From early morning till late at night he was working with “crowds of people” (v15) who wanted to hear his teaching and be healed of their sicknesses. As the rows did not get shorter and the crowds did not diminish one would expect Jesus to be exhausted and run away.

That last bit sounds like my ‘to-do list’ and the people I have to interact with every day. There is always something or someone who wants or needs something. Sometimes trying to get things done is an uphill battle.

Look at how Jesus applies the ‘withdraw and advance’ strategy:

“And Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” – Luke 5:16.