why we keep praying

Today in the One Year Bible, we read from Luke 6:12-38. Jesus is about to choose the twelve disciples. And the night before He does so, He prays ALL NIGHT on a mountain. Have you ever prayed all night? Seems pretty hard, right? It was second nature to Him, though. It seemed to genuinely puzzle Him that His disciples weren't able to even pray with Him for an HOUR, let alone all night.

So why would Jesus pray all night? Wasn't He already without sin? He was perfect, right? He was certainly in touch with God. But He spent all night praying about this decision before He made it.

This shows us how remaining "in the vine" is incredibly important to our spiritual lives. Jesus told us that if we remain in Him, and He remains in us, then we will bear much fruit. We will accomplish great things in our lives. We will do what He made us to do. But apart from Him, we can't do anything at all.

So that's why we have to pray. We have to pray without ceasing. Continually lift up all of our activities, all of our thoughts, even all of our conversations with other people, to Him as a prayer.

Then we'll see what happens in our lives when we stay connected.

God, thanks for showing us how important it is to pray. Help us stay connected.