Part of prayer’s purpose is to give us God’s wisdom. Whenever Christ had decisions to make, He found time to be with the Father, and taught us, by example, to do the same. (Read James 1:5) The night before He called the Twelve, “He went out into a mountain to pray and continued all night.” (Luke 6:13) In this way, He teaches us how we, also, may get clear insight into the circumstances and choices that we face. We must bring our plans and our purposes to God’s throne. We must test our desires against His larger will. “Do nothing large or new–nothing small or old. . .until you have have asked in the silence of a secret place, ‘Lord what would you have me do?’ ” (Alexander Maclaren) Friend, when we pray “lead us not into temptation”, do we realize that we must also commit the time to hear the Lord’s voice when He answers our prayer for guidance?
