Has life ever been so tiring that you have wanted to find a hole, crawl into it and pull it in after you? What I mean is the idea of desiring to be alone, away from the whole world so you can find some kind of peace and quiet.

Perhaps many Christians would not wish to admit they want the world to go away for a while. It does not sound spiritual. It might indicate a lack of faith on their part to admit that life is just too much right now and that they want a “leave of absence” as the military calls it.

Even though Jesus’ mission was to the world, and He greatly desired to minister to anyone who was willing to receive Him, it seems there were times when He just wanted to be alone with His own followers.

Mark 6:30-34 describes a time in Jesus life when He and the apostles did not even have time for food, the demands of the people were so great. So Jesus told the twelve to go with Him in a boat “to a quiet place and get some rest” (Mark 6:31 NIV).

On another occasion, when the disciples of John the Baptist came and told Jesus that His much loved cousin was executed it says that Jesus withdrew to a lonely place. So our Lord found it helpful to be alone to think, pray, refresh Himself and grieve His loss.

While on earth, Jesus demonstrated the common human emotions of hunger, weariness and having the need for sleep. So we recognize His humanness in these situations where He desired time off.

There is an extraordinary detail to some of our Lord’s withdrawals from the problems of life. We see in several of His attempts to be alone for a while that the crowds followed Him and sought His blessing. What did Jesus do? Well it is recorded that He immediately picked up where He left off and ministered to the crowds that followed Him (Mark 3:7; 6:30-34; Matthew 14:13-14).

So we understand that Jesus would withdraw from the crowds, but when they persisted and found Him He was not angry or frustrated, rather He stopped His retreat from them and ministered most wonderfully instead. When His efforts to be alone failed, He went right back to healing the sick and teaching in the Father’s Name.

No one should ever think that Jesus is too busy for them. We cannot think that Jesus would ever turn away from someone who sought Him sincerely. Our Lord is never too busy with other people to leave us when we seek Him with all our hearts.

Perhaps today you believe yourself to be too insignificant or unimportant for Jesus to come to your aid. It was exactly the humble, poor, sick, and lonely people that Jesus sought out for Himself. Jesus made the wonderful promise in John 6:37 NIV

“…whoever comes to me I will never drive away.”

Jesus is calling on people to come to Him today and promises in these words to receive them. There is no reason to stay away from Jesus, come just as you are, weary, confused, with all your needs for Him to address. He will forgive your sin, He will give you peace in the midst of storms, He offers strength to the weary. He promises rest. Come and come now.