This morning as I continue my study of the word “prayer” I have found a strong reminder of the need for prayer in the midst of decision making. I know it may seem like an obvious thing to seek the counsel of God when making decisions, yet the reminder this morning is around the reminder for groups and not just the single individual.

The passage I was brought to this morning is in the first chapter of Acts. Jesus had promised the arrival of The Holy Spirit and then He ascended to His rightful place at the right hand of God in heaven. The eleven remaining disciples returned to Jerusalem and immediately began to pray.

“¹²Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away. ¹³And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James. ¹⁴All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.” – Acts 1:12-14 (ESV)

Now it was not unusual for groups to pray following an event such as they had just been a part. Prayers of thanksgiving, celebration, mourning, and the like would have been and still today are pretty commonplace. This prayer was partly this and then there was the part that is captured by Luke as a part of this point in time. This was not only a time of thanksgiving, celebration, and mourning, but it was also a time of decision making. There was the decisions of what to do next, where to go, and as recorded here in this passage, the decision of who would replace Judas among the disciples of Jesus.

What I have to look at here is not the decision that was made, or the timing of that decision. It is the actions that lead up to the decision, prayer. And not only prayer of an/the individual, but prayer of a group, in one accord. These were not sent their own way to “pray on it” and then come back to have a discussion and finally make a decision. No, they came together as a group, identified the actions that needed deciding and they prayed together for Gods hand of wisdom on the decisions.

My question and thought was this, why would we not take a similar approach to decision making in other areas of our lives. I know that when we are in the church, there is prayer to send folks out as we corporately pray over them. We corporately pray for healing. We corporately pray for God to do His work in the world. How often are we praying corporately to make decisions?

Now I know what the thought might be that is running through the mind, “Everyone in a group may not pray”. First of all there is the obvious Christian question to that thought, why not. But more so what about simply allowing for the time of prayer or thought in the corporate setting when it is time to decide something. I know that I have been involved in too many meetings where there are actions or decisions needed where the approach is, “lets table this and think about it and come back together to make some decisions”. It has been my observation that what happens is that once the meeting or gathering has ended, there is little to no thought on the subject(s) in question until the group comes back together and inevitably there is another adjournment to that meeting without a decision or action being realized.

The disciples of Jesus followed the approach of Jesus, even in His absence (Jesus trained them for it). They prayed and decided. Not only as the individual, but as the group in one accord. It was the corporate prayer that led to the decisions and actions of one accord to go forward.

What approach are you taking when it comes to decisions? Are you praying as a group when there are decisions and/or actions needed? What if you took the approach to come together as a group and not only discuss, but pray together ahead of discussion in working toward a decision guided by God?