By David ReayThursday 31 Mar 2022LifeWords DevotionalsDevotionsReading Time: 3 minutes
One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles: Simon (whom he named Peter), his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot, Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor. (NIV)
This is a text for all who have ever spent much time in prayer and found out things go a bit pear shaped afterward, a text for those who figure that if only we spent whole nights in prayer things wouldn’t go wrong. How so? Simply this: Jesus spent a whole night praying to God before choosing his inner twelve followers. And he ended up with Judas Iscariot as one of them.
Anyone heading an organisation or movement recognises the primary importance of choosing the right team. So, lots of time and effort go into making the right choices. In Christian terms, much prayer is given over to it. No wonder Jesus spent a night in solitary prayer seeking the wisdom of his Father before choosing his team. He got a mixed bunch as a result: Peter, the hot tempered and thick-headed fisherman; and Judas, the treacherous treasurer of the group.
Did Jesus get it wrong? Was all that prayer a waste of time? Not at all. Peter got it right in the end. And Judas’ betrayal of Jesus was all part of the purposes of God. God always answers prayers, whether of one minute or one evening’s duration. What we wrestle with is that those answers don’t always seem to make sense no matter how hard or long or often we pray. Those who have a mechanical sort of mindset worry about this. They might secretly believe that the more prayer coins you put in the God slot the more likely it is you will hit the jackpot in terms of getting what you want.
But prayer is never primarily about presenting shopping lists to God. It is about forging and deepening a relationship. It is about having God shape and reshape our minds and hearts and wills, so we are more in conformity with him. And then of course we are more likely to get what we ask for because we are more likely to see things God’s way. And we are more likely to discern the wisdom in a particular answer to prayer. Getting a traitor like Judas in answer to prayer might seem absurd, but only if we insist on God answering that prayer in a particular way that makes sense to us. But God promises to give us good things, not necessarily things that make sense. And he also invites us to have him enlarge our idea of what is good. We focus on the small, immediate block of land. God sees the whole landscape.
We wrestle in prayer and spend time with God not to score brownie points and so get what we ask for. We pray as one expression of love and trust. We receive from God’s hands the things that delight us, that puzzle us, and that sometimes frustrate us. We get the gentle loving John and the scheming treacherous Judas and all else in between. Make prayer a matter of getting “satisfying” results, and prayer becomes an anxious or arrogant demand. Make prayer a means of capturing the heartbeat of our Father, and it becomes a gracious and secure resting.
Blessings,
David