All-Night Prayer

“In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve.” – Luke 6:12-13

What was the most important decision you have made in your life? In your ministry or career? How did you make that decision?

Luke tells us something none of the other gospels do: what Jesus does the day and night before making the most important decision of his ministry. He doesn’t consult for advice, take a survey, conduct interviews, bullet journal, list out pros and cons, review studies. Not that any of that is bad, but Luke describes with bracing simplicity the one thing he knows Jesus did: leave the city, seek solitude, and pray. The Greek for “pray” here is proseuchomai, and can refer not only to prayer, but a prayer-house. The Jews had these places away from the cities (Acts 16:3), on river banks, groves or hills; they usually consisted of a rough enclosure made of stone or trees, below an open sky. 

To be honest, I value my sleep, perhaps more so the older I’ve gotten. The only time I’ve pulled all-nighters have been the rare night before a major exam, or when required to during rotations in medical school and residency. I’ve never prayed all night. Yet that is what Jesus models for us here: whatever else you may do before an important decision, pray. Pray in a way that is marked by solitude, by extensiveness, perhaps by retreat to a sacred space.

Being compelled to spend an entire day and night in prayer is not something that rises out of the blue. It comes from a regular experience of God in prayer, and we see this as well in Luke, who describes Jesus praying more than all of the other gospels combined (Luke 3:21, 5:16, 6:12, 9:18, 9:28, 22:32, 23:34, 23:46). Too often, we do anything but pray. We worry or analyze. We make our own decisions and ask God to postscript a blessing.

I think about the important decisions I face in my life. As a parent, I think about perhaps the two most important decisions my kids will make: deciding to follow Jesus, and deciding whom to marry. Am I praying about these things, with at least some of the fervency and consistency they require? When was the last time I retreated to spend more extensive time in prayer?