And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone. — Matthew 14:23
Not so long ago I really needed to meet with someone. I was facing a significant decision and I needed their perspective to move forward wisely. But they were extremely busy and finding time on their calendar was a challenge. Day after day I waited. The decision loomed. The clarity I needed stayed just out of reach. And the longer the meeting was delayed the more the weight of the situation pressed in.
Finally the day arrived. We sat down together and the meeting was everything I had hoped it would be. Meaningful. Clarifying. It gave me exactly what I needed to move forward with confidence.
What struck me afterward was simple. All of that had been available the whole time. The perspective, the clarity, the direction I needed, it was there waiting. I just had not been in the room yet.
Prayer works the same way.
Jesus was the Son of God. He had performed miracles, taught thousands, and carried the weight of the world’s redemption on His shoulders. And yet one of the most consistent patterns in His life was this: He withdrew to pray. Matthew 14 shows us a moment after an exhausting day of ministry and the death of John the Baptist where Jesus sent the crowds away and went up the mountain alone. Not because He was required to. Not because He had no other option. Because the altar of prayer was a place He returned to consistently, deliberately, and without apology.
If the Son of God built His life around intentional prayer, what does that say about our need for it?
There is a difference between occasional prayer and an altar of prayer. Occasional prayer is reactive, we reach for it when things get hard enough to make us look for help. An altar of prayer is something different. It is a fixed point. A place we return to regularly. A practice so woven into the rhythm of our days that it shapes everything else rather than being squeezed in around everything else.
Most believers pray. But an altar requires more than occasional visits. It requires the kind of intentionality that says, I am not going to let another day pass without meeting with God. Not because I have a crisis to bring Him. But because He is the source of everything I need to navigate whatever comes next.
The clarity, the direction, the peace, the strength we spend so much time looking for in other places, it is available at the altar. It has been there the whole time. We just have not been in the room.
Jesus modeled a life where nothing displaced the altar of prayer. Not the demands of ministry. Not the grief of loss. Not the pressure of the crowds or the weight of what was coming. He went up the mountain. He was there alone. He met with the Father.
That invitation is still open to every believer today.
The meeting you have been waiting for is not on someone else’s calendar. It is available right now. And every time you return to the altar of prayer, you will find that what was waiting there was exactly what you needed all along.
Build the altar. Keep coming back to it. The most important meeting of your day is the one you have with God.
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About Another Well Ministries
Another Well Ministries exists to help people slow down, listen deeply, and encounter God in the ordinary places of life. Through devotionals, reflections, and spiritual resources, we seek to create space for faith to be formed with honesty, grace, and hope.
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