Luke 6:12 (ESV)
In these days he went out to the
mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God.
Two significant things happen
after Jesus spent a night on a mountain in prayer. First, he appointed his
twelve apostles. Second, the majority of this chapter is taken up by his Sermon
on the Plain. The Sermon on the Plain contains similar information to the
Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew, but is shorter and contains aspects that
Matthew doesn’t. Likely Jesus taught many of these things multiple times in multiple
locations.
The significant thing is that both
of these events were preceded by a night in isolated prayer. For too many of us
who claim to be Christians, followers of Christ, believers, we approach prayer
as though it is us talking. We start talking and for those of us who are less
verbal we run out of things to say and think we must be done praying so we say,
“Amen” and go on our way. Sometimes I wonder if at that point we haven’t even
started praying yet. When we think of prayer like that, it raises another
question. What could Jesus say all night long?
What if prayer isn’t just talking?
What if prayer is listening? What if prayer is just being in the presence of
the Father? What if prayer is communion with God? What if prayer is meditating
on his Word? What if prayer is singing and silence and bowing the knee before
the Almighty? What if we are short-circuiting our prayer life by limiting our
definition of prayer?
Brother Lawrence, a 17th
Century monk wrote about practicing the continual presence of God. Frank
Laubach was an early 20th century Christian missionary who wrote about
much the same thing. I think that we have largely lost that perspective in our fast-moving,
busy-is-better world. We no long know how to linger in God’s presence. We are distracted
by notifications, text messages, emails, and demands on our time. We haven’t yet
learned that to linger in God’s presence makes us more effective in all we do.
We learn to pray by listening to
others pray, but public prayer is not the same as private prayer. Surely what
we call the Lord’s Prayer is not the sum total of Jesus prayer life? Clearly
the prayers that we have recorded by Jesus, John 17 for example, is not the
complete record of his prayer life. We know that because of passages like the
one we are considering. Jesus prayed all night on the mountain. That’s a little
longer than John 17.
Arnold Prater, a Methodist pastor,
evangelist, and author wrote in his book You Can Pray as You Ought that
half of our prayer time ought to be silence. His book was based on Romans 8:26,
“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray
for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too
deep for words.” Prater reasoned that if the Spirit intercedes with groanings
too deep for words, then perhaps our silence is what is needed. I think he was
on to something. My prayer today is, “Lord, teach me to pray!” Will you join me
in that prayer? But be warned, it will take time.
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