Ron,
I'm going to bring my thoughts around from a different perspective, but end up at your references in Matthew, Mark and Luke.
I recently heard a message that resounded with me. It was in
II Kings 4. The story is talking about the Shunammite woman who met Elisha.
The point of the message was focused on verse (10) "Let us make a little chamber, I pray thee, on the wall; and let us set for him there a bed, and a table, and a stool, and a candlestick: and it shall be, when he cometh to us, that he shall turn in thither."
At first I thought the speaker was going to bring out the focus on the "man of God", but his point was this - "Make room in your life for a miracle."
What he was trying to convey is that we have to deny ourselves, on some levels and in some things - participation, activities, desires - and make room for more of a move of God in our life. We need to become more consecrated in our thoughts and desires and make "room" for more of a move of God.
That basically is what your scriptures are speaking to me.
We can become caught up in the day to day, even on this Forum, and get bogged down in our lives with doctrinal issues, pleasures, etc. and not spend as much time focusing on the things of God.
I want to do better.