Luke 6:[12] In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. [13] And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles: [14] Simon, whom he named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, [15] and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot, [16] and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
Luke records the final selection of the twelve. It is not to be skimmed over that he twelve were finally selected after Jesus spent a whole night in prayer. An important decision. So Jesus spends the night with God talking to Him about it. Did Jesus agonize over the selection of Judas? We are not told. We are simply told that He prayed all night before making the choice.
A few thoughts:
1) Praying meant that Jesus didn’t worry. He wasn’t up all night wondering who to pick, hoping that He would get exactly the right guys for the job. He wasn’t worrying about how in the world He could survive three years of Judas’ deceptions, Peter’s idiocy, Thomas’ lack of faith, John’s pride and the desertion of virtually the whole bunch when things will get real tough. No. But what He did do was pray. Pray and worry are mutually exclusive. Instead of worrying, Jesus prayed. We see this disconnect between worry and prayer in Philippians 4:6-9.
2) Jesus entrusted this important matter to His Father. Without Him we can do nothing and the degree to which we believe that is the degree to which we shall pray.
3) Jesus prayed and then He did something. Prayer is not a substitute for the work. It is not something some do while others get going and do the real work. Prayer is part of the work and it is what very busy people with very busy schedules have as an integral part of their lives because without prayer we will accomplish nothing. We will not pray and then sit still. We will pray and then continue in our work.
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