JESUS PRAYED FOR WISDOM

Who would you choose? If you were to choose twelve men to multiply the ministry of Jesus, who would you pick?

Peter? The hotheaded, speak-first-and-think-later fisherman? Would he make a good disciple and apostle? How about the rest of his crew? Andrew, Peter’s brother, and James and John, all fishermen on Galilee… should they have been chosen? They were undereducated, common, coarse, calloused, blue collar guys. No thanks.

How about Matthew? He was a pariah among the Jewish people in Capernaum. He was a non-patriot, hated by all. He had sold out to the Romans and become a tax collector. No way! On the opposite end of the political spectrum was Simon the Zealot. He was probably called a Zealot due to his outspoken hatred of Roman rule.

Mostly unknown, with questionable credentials, why did Jesus choose “Philip and Bartholomew; Matthew and Thomas; James the son of Alphaeus … and Judas the son of James” (Luke 6:14-16.)

And, if He knew the end from before the beginning, why did Jesus pick Judas Iscariot? Never! If you knew he would steal from you, sell you out, and stab you in the back, why was he included in the twelve?

Jesus chose them… all twelve of them. It wasn’t a decision made lightly. It was deliberate. It was premeditated. In was intentional. It happened like this… “During those days he went out to the mountain to pray and spent all night in prayer to God. When daylight came, he summoned his disciples, and he chose twelve of them, whom he also named apostles” (Luke 6:12-13).

Do you have a decision to make? Turn right or turn left? Start of stay? Go here or go there? When Jesus was faced with a momentous decision, He sought His Father. Shouldn’t we also pray for Divine wisdom?

“… think on these things” (Philippians 4:8, KJV).