This is Going to Sound Stupid
Luke 6:12-13 Now during those days he went out to the mountain to pray; and he spent the night in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples and chose twelve of them, whom he also named apostles.
Now … I know this is going to sound stupid, but you know what I’ve discovered? When I pray about something first, things seem to go much better. I told you I was going to sound stupid.
Really I should have known that. It’s obvious. I’ve written a book on prayer and still sometimes I forget to pray. I just race out there and start doing things and wonder, “Why isn’t this working out the way I’d hoped?”
We can be pretty spiritually thick sometimes when it comes to prayer, or is it just me?!
We know that it’s true, or at least it should be, that when we pray first, things are going to go better. At least that’s what the Bible says:
Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established. (Proverbs 16:3)
That’s the theory. That’s how it should work. And yet how often do we just race out and start doing stuff and stuff and stuff – only to run smack bang into a brick wall and it’s only when we’ve cracked our heads open that we come to our senses and … pray.
I’ve done it. You’ve done it. We do it over and over again.
The truth is that we make better decisions when we pray, because God speaks to us when we pray. He confirms things in our spirit or he gives us a check in the spirit so that we don’t end up heading off in the wrong direction. The truth is that God guides us when we pray. Jesus, even though He was the Son of God, prayed. Because with all His glory and power laid aside, He needed His Father’s guidance, and He laid hold of that, through prayer. It seems that when He had some important decisions to make, He prayed them through rather thoroughly:
Now during those days he went out to the mountain to pray; and he spent the night in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples and chose twelve of them, whom he also named apostles. (Luke 6:12-13)
He was choosing the twelve disciples, eleven of whom would go on to found the fledgling, first century church. So choosing the right ones was incredibly important. It required God’s guidance. It was about inviting God’s will to be done. So important was this that He spent the whole night up on a mountain praying. He wanted to get it right.
When are we going to finally get it you and I? When are we finally going to become men and women who go to God in prayer in the first instance, rather than as a last resort?
Things go so much better, when we pray about them first. They just do.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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