You Might Want to Pray About It (Luke 6:12-13)
"One day soon afterward Jesus went up on a mountain to pray, and he prayed to God all night. At daybreak he called together all of his disciples and chose twelve of them to be apostles..." (Luke 6:12, 13 NLT)
Jesus prayed. Often. Occasionally He got up before sun up to commune with God the Father.
I always wish I could have been a fly on the wall to just listen in on to those prayer meetings to see what "perfect prayer" actually looked like.
But then I wonder, "Why did Jesus even need to pray?" Didn't He have the authority to do the works of God kinda on demand? Of course. And yet He prayed more than any man in history.
Was He just being a good example? Hardly. Apparently Jesus understood something about prayer that you and I don't. Maybe His "praying" was less about requesting something and more about communing with the very presence of the One who is the source of all things.
On this specific occasion Jesus already had a following of hundreds of disciples. In order to multiply His ministry into the surrounding areas and ultimately the world He intended to select twelve men who would become His ambassadors to lead what would become largest movement in history. So what does Jesus do? He went up on a mountain and prayed ALL night.
Then I wonder, "didn't Jesus already have enough wise judgment to make this decision?" If we say no, then it's an insult to His deity. If we say yes then why did He feel it necessary to spend all night praying about it?
I don't know, but if the Son of God sought God with such intensity when it came to making big decisions, how much more should we be ready to go to prayer. But maybe Jesus was not so much simply asking for things He "needed". Even though Jesus had perfect knowledge He still did not depend on His own ability. In fact, in John 5:30 Jesus said, "I can do nothing on my own. I judge as God tells me. Therefore, my judgment is just, because I carry out the will of the one who sent me, not my own will."
It's not that He didn't have the authority to do His will, rather through prayer His understanding of the character of God had diminished His desire to do anything but surrender to the will of the Father. Perhaps even more than getting the wisdom we need, maybe the biggest benefit of prayer is not in the asking but in how being in the very presence of God helps us know more of who He is and yield more fully to Him.
When we face decisions that require more insight than we have we should pray. When the circumstances are beyond our understanding we need more than just wisdom. We need need to personally experience the character of God up close.
The more of God's character we know, the more it helps us to trust Him and surrender to His will.
Jesus prayed. Often. Occasionally He got up before sun up to commune with God the Father.
I always wish I could have been a fly on the wall to just listen in on to those prayer meetings to see what "perfect prayer" actually looked like.
But then I wonder, "Why did Jesus even need to pray?" Didn't He have the authority to do the works of God kinda on demand? Of course. And yet He prayed more than any man in history.
Was He just being a good example? Hardly. Apparently Jesus understood something about prayer that you and I don't. Maybe His "praying" was less about requesting something and more about communing with the very presence of the One who is the source of all things.
On this specific occasion Jesus already had a following of hundreds of disciples. In order to multiply His ministry into the surrounding areas and ultimately the world He intended to select twelve men who would become His ambassadors to lead what would become largest movement in history. So what does Jesus do? He went up on a mountain and prayed ALL night.
Then I wonder, "didn't Jesus already have enough wise judgment to make this decision?" If we say no, then it's an insult to His deity. If we say yes then why did He feel it necessary to spend all night praying about it?
I don't know, but if the Son of God sought God with such intensity when it came to making big decisions, how much more should we be ready to go to prayer. But maybe Jesus was not so much simply asking for things He "needed". Even though Jesus had perfect knowledge He still did not depend on His own ability. In fact, in John 5:30 Jesus said, "I can do nothing on my own. I judge as God tells me. Therefore, my judgment is just, because I carry out the will of the one who sent me, not my own will."
It's not that He didn't have the authority to do His will, rather through prayer His understanding of the character of God had diminished His desire to do anything but surrender to the will of the Father. Perhaps even more than getting the wisdom we need, maybe the biggest benefit of prayer is not in the asking but in how being in the very presence of God helps us know more of who He is and yield more fully to Him.
When we face decisions that require more insight than we have we should pray. When the circumstances are beyond our understanding we need more than just wisdom. We need need to personally experience the character of God up close.
The more of God's character we know, the more it helps us to trust Him and surrender to His will.
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