Don’t Get Caught Sleeping
After I wrote “don’t get caught sleeping” at the end of my Facebook post yesterday, I thought about how the disciples fell asleep when Jesus asked them to pray. As recounted in Matthew 26, Mark 14, and Luke 22, Jesus went to pray right before his arrest leading up to his crucifixion. He asked his disciples to wait, watch, and pray, but they kept falling asleep. Not once, not twice, but three times.
Note these words Jesus spoke upon returning from praying the first time and finding the disciples asleep, “What! Could you not watch with Me one hour? Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Matthew 26:40-41)
Jesus knew the importance and power of prayer. Throughout scripture, He is repeatedly noted as praying. And throughout scripture, we are told to pray.
Chapter 6 of Ephesians, which details the pieces of the armor of God, even sums it up with this in verse 18, “Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.”
May we not be a people who fall asleep, but may we be a people who pray.
