One of the valuable lessons I have learned from Stephen Covey is the practice of proactivity – the ability to put a space between the stimulus and the actions I take. The best way to exercise proactivity, I have learned, is through prayer. In prayer, I pause before taking action and before choosing which course of action is God’s will for me, which option will best express the principles and the values I have centered my life on.
Before Christ started his public ministry, he spent forty days in prayer in the desert. Before he chose his apostles, he spent the night in prayer. Before he entered into his passion, he prayed in the Garden. Every time, he sought what was the will of the Father for him.
“Now during those days he went out to the mountain to pray; and he spent the night in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples and chose twelve of them, whom he also named apostles.”
Luke 6:12-17