Each one of us comes to points in life where we have to make important decisions. It was the same in the life of Jesus. One day He was faced with the decision of choosing twelve men from among His disciples. They were to be with Him for more than three years to learn from Him and to be sent out to serve (see Mark 3:13–15).

As a dependent Man, He did not choose as people would normally choose. Who among us would have chosen Judas Iscariot and then even made him treasurer? The Lord said to His disciples, “Did I not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil” (John 6:70). He also knew that another disciple would deny Him three times, and that all of them would eventually leave Him and fall away because of Him—and this at the most crucial hour of His life (see Mt. 26:31; John 16:32)!

What did our Lord and Master do before He made this momentous decision? He spent the whole night in prayer (see Luke 6:12–13). For several hours He sought the face of God and talked with Him. Although He was very busy during the day, He still found time to pray again and again. What a challenging example of true dependence!

His perseverance in prayer was the result of His heart’s deep desire and not simply a matter of strong self-discipline. He didn’t look at the clock or force Himself to do something that was actually a burden for Him. How quickly we feel that we have to struggle to pray longer because we make time our goal and are not exclusively focused on prayer requests or communion with God!

If our Lord spent so much time in prayer before making important decisions, how much more should we do so! Are there times when you spend 30 or 60 minutes alone in prayer? What keeps you from consciously taking a longer time for prayer? Of course, it is unlikely that overnight you will start praying for several hours a day, if on average your daily prayer time is currently 15 minutes. But prayer is like a muscle that becomes more powerful through daily training!

But it could also be that something is so burning in your soul that you don’t even notice how time passes while you are spreading it out before the Lord in prayer. And when we’ve had encouraging experiences in prayer, it can suddenly motivate us to spend more time on our knees, even though we are not really used to it. 

To what extent are you striving to become more like your Lord and Master also in regard to His prayer life? How much time do you take for prayer when you’re faced with important decisions? During prayer, try not to think about time, but focus on your concerns and fellowship with the Lord!