“Get up and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation.”
Reading Luke 22 this morning, the echoes of these ancient words reverberated through the corridors of my soul. I was convicted—guilty as charged.
Just hours before he would carry all of humanity’s sins on his shoulders and in his own body, Jesus spoke these words to his friends, disciples, the men who would be responsible for his world-wide mission. He invited them to enter into and share His agony through intercessory prayer. But, they were exhausted with grief and the self-absorbed pursuit of moving up the leadership ladder. How could they sleep while their Master suffered? What a shame! Well, over 2000 years later, He speaks these same words to me.
I am in that garden, sleeping. My Savior invites me to pray with Him, but I am exhausted with grief and hopelessness, self-absorbed pursuits, and the lack of curiosity. My Savior has invited me into His pain. Yet, I sleep. My Savior has invited me to agonize with Him over murder, abortion, rape, slavery, genocide, infanticide, abusive relationships, failing marriages, oil spills, hurricanes, and earthquakes. Yet, I sleep. He comes to me and finds me sleeping. I’m found out. I’m embarrassed. I offer no words of excuse or rationalization. I was sleeping—plain and simple. I wipe the sleep from my eyes and the drool from my mouth, only to recognize that he has been praying while I was sleeping. He has been praying and agonizing over the pain, the brokenness, the sins, the fear, the anxiety, and the hiding of the world, and I have been sleeping. My Savior kneels alone on His praying ground, deeply troubled. Yet, I sleep.
Because I am sleeping, I am not praying. And, because I am not praying, I am more prone to fail. I am in the garden, sleeping, and I am prone to give into all kinds of temptations: irrational fear, unnecessary anxiety, blatant satanic lies that my sins can outrun God’s grace, the delusional belief that I know better than God and can control my own life, and feeding my flesh is more important than feeding my spirit. It’s time for me to:
Get up!
Arise!
Wake up!
Pray!
Intercede!
Talk to God!
Be devoted to prayer!
Enter into this exhausting, powerful, and intimate spiritual habit with my Savior.
Will you join me in being devoted to talking to our heavenly Father daily? Let’s awake and pray so we won’t fail Him and others we love.
tom felten on August 24, 2010 at 8:57 am
Marvin, thanks so much for this wake-up call. Your words remind of a song written by Keith Green titled “Asleep in the Light.” His lyrics echo your thoughts of our need to wake up and see the needs around us, praying to God and reaching out to those who don’t know Him. It’s time for us to “strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith” (Hebrews 12:1-2).
Tan Joo Lian on August 24, 2010 at 9:07 pm
This message rings a bell. Just last month or so, a few mornings after I pack off my son to school, I crawled back to bed, only to hear the Spirit prompting “Get up and pray”. And the Spirit brought to my remembrance the same passage that is read today.
How true indeed too often we allow ourselves to slip into spiritual slumber when forget to pray. We must not allow “the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak” to be a convenient excuse not to pray….
Nernny on August 25, 2010 at 7:47 pm
Thanks Marvin.Its really a reminder for me to WAKE UP. these few days I found that I always sleeping rather than praying.Even though I am awake when my alarm rang early in the morning to pray,but I can’t focus. I end up to complain to God,”Lord..I am tired,I am sleepy bla bla bla..Zzzzzz
But as I read your post this morning,it really wake my Spirit up! Its enough with complaining but its the time to really discipline our body and train our spirit.
“Keep awake and watch and pray constantly,that you may not enter into temptation.the spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak”(Mark 14:38)
amzette on November 22, 2010 at 12:09 pm
Marvin, that was beautifully written and I’m thankful for the words that God gave you to share with us. I’m going to print it and put in on my refrigerator as a reminder of how I should be living. I’ve had a very tough time praying, really praying-not just the little prayers I pray at night with my boys. Over the summer my dad tried killing himself and just two weeks later my nephew passed away. Then a week later my brother disowned me the night before my nephew’s funeral, for really no good reason at all. Anyway, in all my pain and suffering, it’s been hard to pray and hard to let go. It’s a lot easier to just sleep or medicate to numb the pain. Your words have encouraged my soul and have lifted my spirit. I just wanted to thank you for the boost! God knows I really needed it. I will get down on my knees and pray to the God who can comfort me. I will stop pushing Him away, instead I will draw nearer.
smyrns on November 26, 2010 at 3:50 pm
Thank you Rev. Williams for that wake up call, my prayer life as a Christan has been fading, to say the least. I am happy to have stumbled upon this devotional. I will be sending it to all my friends, so that they to can wake up, before it is to late. Thank you