Jesus went up to the mountain to pray,
and he spent the night in prayer to God.
If Jesus took time away to pray how much more ought we imitate him, especially when we face important decisions. Jesus was preparing to call those who "will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel" (see Matthew 19:28), those who would lead the new "Israel of God" (see Galatians 6:16). He did not simply perform a cost-benefit analysis or review the resumes of potential applicants. In fact, his decision cut in the face of world wisdom.
But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God (see First Corinthians 1:27-29).
God often asks us to trust him in ways that seem impractical. Rather than facing a battle fully equipped we are sometimes called to send some of our resources away simply so that the glory of the victory can belong fully to God just as was the case for Gideon (see Judges 7).
Without a life of prayer we can't have sufficient confidence of what God is asking of us to pursue it zealously. We may perhaps, like Simon, be zealous for our own projects and initiatives, for those plans of action which make sense to us and which seem tenable. But we will not have the good zeal from the Holy Spirit that marked Jesus himself, so much that his disciples remembered the prophecy that, "Zeal for your house will consume me" (see John 2:17). Prayer can help us recommit our energies from our own projects to zeal for the household of God, built upon the Apostles, and still growing in our midst.
Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord (see Romans 12:11).
We may not feel capable of zeal, not able to fight battles, and as though we have already been defeated before we even begin to face a challenge. There may be little to distinguish us at this point, humanly speaking, from Judas. We may still feel that we are "strangers and sojourners", still "alienated from the community of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise". We may even feel that we are "without hope and without God in the world" (see Ephesians 2:12-13). Prayer can help us to see things differently. It can help us to believe that God can do anything with the raw materials he chooses. From ordinary clay he can make beautiful vessels for his service. From even the most meager living stones he can build a sacred temple as a dwelling place for his own Spirit.
If we still look to all appearances to be potential traitors to the Lord, if there are no obvious signs of commitment or the manifestation of gifts or talents, this is the perfect starting place for the Lord to write a new story of testimony to his glory. We can be transformed from potential hopeless cases ourselves to those who can assist other apparent lost causes among us. We can come to realize that if the Lord can do this for us he can indeed do it for anyone. If our zeal is still committed to worldly projects the Lord invites us to come away with him so that we can learn to see reality in a new and deeper way, so that the priorities of his Kingdom become our own.
The Lord gives us hope and directs our zeal. When we experience these things we need no longer fear to fail. We are able to become bold messengers of his Kingdom, just as were his Apostles.
Through all the earth their voice resounds,
and to the ends of the world, their message.
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