Luke 6:12 One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God.
With the possible exception of evangelism, few topics elicit guilt in Christians like the call to pray. We all know we should and we have a plethora of examples showing why it is important, but still we don’t. My purpose is not to make us feel more guilty, but simply to observe the occasion of Jesus’ prayer – He prayed all night while deciding who would be His Twelve closest followers.
Now, it wasn’t like these were established positions. There was no Bylaw that said He had to have twelve. He could have chosen 10 or even 15. Certainly twelve was a Biblical number, but He wasn’t filling a quota; He was looking for men whose hearts were right deep down, because they would carry on His ministry after He had gone to heaven. They would be called upon to suffer hardship and trial, eventually even martyrdom, and if their hearts were compromised, they wouldn’t last.
We don’t know what transpired between Father and Son that night, but somehow, He heard from the Father about which of the multitude He should call to “be with Him.” Those hours of prayer helped Him peer into the hearts of these men and understand who would last and who wouldn’t. I suspect that as the night wore on, Jesus saw how they would respond to His message and His purpose for their lives. I suspect also that there was some wrestling over the appointment of Judas Iscariot!
This passage doesn’t give us great insight into how prayer works or what methodology we should use to find the answers to our questions and struggles. But it does point out the importance that Jesus placed upon prayer prior to major decisions, and it is an example of how we also should approach decisions in our own lives. If prayer was necessary for Jesus before decisions, how much more is it necessary for us.
I don’t believe there as anything “magical” about spending all night in prayer, any more than any other discipline. But the main point of this brief statement in Luke’s Gospel is that we need to pray – even if it’s just a brief cry for help. It doesn’t matter how long or how big the decision, when it comes to prayer, just do it.