The Whole Night

 It was at this time that He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God.  And when day came, He called His disciples to Him and chose twelve of them, whom He also named as apostles…

I don’t know about you, but I’ve never spent an entire night in prayer.  I have trouble spending more than about 15 minutes in prayer, and that’s on a good day! 

Notice what came after this entire night of conversation with his Father.

Jesus chose those who would follow him, those whom he would disciple. 

This was a serious decision Jesus was about to make, that of calling those to leave what they were doing and follow after him and what he was doing – which was going about his Father’s business.

There are things that require more than a “Help me, Lord” type of prayer.  Prayer sometimes requires time to talk to God, but also time to listen to what God says, and to acquire his direction. 

If we only pray to make our petitions known to him, we are missing out on the fellowship of prayer, where he talks back to us.  If we only pray to pour out our complaints to him, we are missing out on the comfort he gives by singing, whispering, and loving us with his presence.

When you are able and can carve out the time, actually SPEND a long time in prayer and sit still and listen. 

Then when you make a move, when you choose a path, or when you reach out to others, your movements, routes, and decisions will be birthed out of your “phone conference” with the Almighty – at his directive.

You might be surprised at the effectiveness of that long time spent in prayer...