The potency of prayer is experienced when trying to make wise decisions. Look no further than Jesus who, before he chose his twelve apostles (Luke 6:13-16), spent the whole night in prayer (v. 12). Prayer sometimes leads to surprising decisions that could only be made after communing with God.

My wife and I recently realized we’ve become quite the “strategists” with our children. When they share dilemmas with us, we are quick to offer (oftentimes) dogmatic counsel without asking clarifying questions and, more shamefully, without praying. We eventually get to prayer, but not as soon as we should. You would think that now that our kids are moving into adulthood, we wouldn’t still fail in this area. Yet, here we are, so we need the following two reminders from Scripture. Perhaps you do, also.

First, prayer was a priority in Jesus’ life and the early church.

The next time you read through a Gospel (especially Luke), count how many times Jesus either prays or says something about prayer. The number might be larger than you think. Here are just two examples of Jesus praying:

And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. (Mark 1:35)

In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. (Luke 6:12)

An obvious, but necessary, take-away is this: if the Son of God prioritized prayer, we are foolish to do otherwise. Perhaps praying all night won’t be the norm, though there will be experiences in life that demand such a sacrifice. And I wouldn’t say prioritizing prayer means we must arise “early in the morning” like Jesus in order to pray. However, I’m challenged by John Bunyan’s statement, “He who runs from God in the morning,” he who gets on with his activities and strategizing and discussions and decisions of the day without dependence on God through prayer to start the day, “will scarcely find him the rest of the day. ”