A Misconception About Prayer

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.
Luke 6:12-13 (NIV)

We mistakenly believe sometimes that prayer is a failsafe that prevents all threats from our lives. We believe falsely that prayer will make all our paths smooth and nothing will hit our lives but success and prosperity and progression. Prayer should be able to manipulate events and prevent the painful and the disappointing from taking place, shouldn’t it?

In Luke 6, we read that Jesus went up on a mountainside to pray, and He spent the entire night in prayer. I have no doubt that among the many things He prayed about, He asked the Lord to guide His selection of the men He would call as His apostles.

And yet, the very next morning, when Jesus chose the Twelve from among the disciples, we see that Judas the traitor made the team.

According to our conventional wisdom, it seems like the prayer of Jesus should have led Him to spot, reveal, and remove Judas from His selection in order to prevent betrayal and hurt and pain. But you and I know that life doesn’t unfold that way.

If Jesus prayed all night, and Judas still made the team, what does that tell us about the potential answers to our prayers?

Now, of course, Jesus knew that Judas would eventually betray Him, but Jesus was surrendered to the will of His father. The pain, the suffering, the feeling of abandonment, the insults, the beatings, the bloodshed—and yes, even the betrayal of His close friend Judas— were part of the complete submission Jesus demonstrated to God, as summarized in His simple prayer at Gethsemane: “Nevertheless, not My will but Your will be done.”

Here’s what I want you to come away with today. You can’t give up on your prayers because things don’t turn out the way you expect them. Don’t weaken your confidence in prayer because along with it comes some issues and battles that you thought your prayers would have eliminated. Don’t walk away from prayer because after praying you still get attacked or struggle.

Sometimes you can pray, and Judas still ends up on your team, so to speak.

Prayer is not for guiding outcomes. Prayer is for grounding our lives in the will of God.