He Went Out To The Mountain

This morning I read Luke 6 and was challenged by these words:

During those days He went out to the mountain to pray and spent all night in prayer to God. When daylight came, He summoned His disciples, and He chose 12 of them; He also named them apostles: (Luke 6:12-13).

As I read that, I was struck by the fact that Jesus prayed all night long on the mountain before He chose the 12.

All night.

The Son of God--God incarnate--prayed all night before this big decision.

And then I thought about what most Christians do before big decisions. We might pray for a few minutes. But mostly we'd rather "use the brain God gave us." Or we'd rather "seek wise counsel." Granted, those are good things to do--things I do, and things I encourage others to do. But I wonder how often they are used as a means of justification for our laziness in the discipline of prayer. How often are they just a cop-out for our failure to pray without ceasing? I wonder how often we'd rather try every other means accessible to us for our decisions before spending the time in prayer that Jesus did.

Needless to say, I was convicted.

Needless to say, with the Lord's help, I'll be heading to the mountain more often.

And yes, I'll still be seeking wise counsel, but not without seeking the wisest counsel first.