Jesus, the lover of your soul, wants some intimate time alone with you.
Come away by yourself to a solitary place and get some rest. Jesus himself summons us into solitude. So what's stopping you?
Solitude offers quality time alone with God. We meet him on his terms in a quiet place alone. Take little or nothing with you so there are no distractions from everyday life. It is an intimate time alone with the lover of your soul.
This is a time for quiet rest. But when you enter into a deeper solitude, you may find yourself wrestling with your Creator. When Jacob was alone, (Genesis 32:24) God came and wrestled with him until dawn. Jacob received a blessing in that solitude experience where the Lord said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel , because you have struggled with God 
and with men and have overcome." In solitude, we wrestle with deep things of the soul. There we can receive God's blessing.
The Holy Spirit led Jesus into forty days of solitude to prepare him for public ministry. The Apostle Paul went into the desert of Arabia to receive the fullness of the Gospel in the solitary presence of Christ. Then he began to preach the words he had received from the Lord.
In the Jewish tradition, shared by Jesus and Paul, going to a solitary place holds the expectation of meeting with God and receiving Divine intervention. The wilderness experience is a place where the Lord meets his people in their struggle toward wholeness.
Anthony of Egypt was born about the middle of the third century. His parents died when he was twenty and he inherited their great wealth. One Sunday in church, Anthony heard these words from the Gospel, "Go sell everything you have and follow me." He heard this believing that the Lord had spoken to him directly. So he sold all that he had and left his village to live a solitary life in the desert.
This is what Anthony said about solitude, "Whoever sits in solitude and is quiet has escaped from three wars; hearing, speaking and seeing. Yet against one thing he must constantly battle – his own heart." Anthony died at the age of 105 leaving behind little more than the clothes on his back and a multitude of disciples who loved and followed him.
You don't need to find a desert if you want to practice solitude. A quiet room where you can be alone will do just fine. If you are the outdoors type, then a walk in the woods or a secluded place in the park may be just the thing. The objective is to be alone with no distractions like cell phones and iPods.
Jesus, the lover of your soul, wants some intimate time alone with you. Go away to a solitary place to meet with him. You may receive the greatest blessing of your life.
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