This story is featured in a collection of Bible stories for kids called Pray without Ceasing: Bible Stories for Kids about Prayer.
Mark 1:32–39
Jesus taught us how to pray. He said, “But 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 6:6). He also showed us how to pray. As you can imagine, Jesus was very busy. A lot of people wanted his attention.
As you read this story, pay attention to how Jesus made time for prayer.
Jesus was very busy. He often taught and spoke in the synagogue, where people came to worship God.
One evening, he left the synagogue to stay at the home of his friend and follower Peter. Peter’s mother-in-law was there. She was sick with a fever.
Jesus walked up to her bed and took her hand. He helped her up. The fever immediately left her, and she was better again. She felt so good that she made them all dinner.
Other people brought their sick friends and family to Peter’s house that night. Everyone in the entire town was waiting outside the door. Jesus healed many, many people that night.
Jesus woke up very early the next day, before the sunrise. He left the house to go find a place where he could be alone. There, he prayed.
Peter and Jesus’s disciples arrived and interrupted Jesus’s prayer.
“Everyone is looking for you,” Peter said.
Jesus looked up at them and nodded his head. “Let us go on to the nearby villages, that I may preach there also. For this purpose I have come.”
Jesus and his disciples left Peter’s home and traveled to many other towns nearby so that Jesus could preach and teach in their synagogues.
Reflection Questions
- Where and when did Jesus find time to pray?
- What are some of the things that keep you the most busy?
- Where and when can you find time to pray?
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