Today’s Devotion
Topic: Why Are You Sleeping?
Text: Luke 22: 39- 46
39 Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and His disciples followed Him. 40 On reaching the place, He said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.” 41 He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed. 42 “Father, if You are willing, take this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.”
43 An angel from heaven appeared to Him and strengthened Him. 44 And being in anguish, He prayed more earnestly, and His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. 45 When He rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, He found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. 46 “Why are you sleeping?” He asked them. “Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.” Amen
Jesus went to the mount of Olives determined to pray. Many things run through His mind while He sensed danger approaching. His disciples followed Him there; they were also troubled. But as Jesus went on to pray, they slept. As Jesus’ troubles moved Him to prayer, their troubles moved them to sleep, exhausted from all the sorrow.
Beloved, prayer is inevitable in the life of a believer. It is like a joke if a believer does not pray at all. It is even worse when believers use their problems as the very excuse for no prayer.
You see, those problems bothering Jesus lead Him to the garden to find some time and space to pray. He was overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the pending problem (ie. the cross), so He quickly surrendered His will to that of the Father in prayer. That is where Heaven took over and an angel was sent to strengthen Him. After that touch, He could now pray more earnestly.
His disciples on the other hand, though equally troubled, could not pray at all. They were exhausted from sorrow. By allowing anxiety, sorrow and worries to take the better part of them, they were too drained both emotional and spiritually to be able to pray. And instead of surrendering their will so that help is sent from above to revive them, they slept their problems away! As if that was possible.
Jesus asked therefore, “WHY ARE YOU SLEEPING?” What this question simply implies is “this is not the time to sleep nor the period for giving excuses about your problems, get up and pray, lest you fall into temptation, period!”
Beloved, most of us are sleeping. Ain’t we? We asked the Pastor and the prayer warriors to pray for us and we went back to bed. To us, these problems knocking on our doors are more than we can bear. They leave us no option than sorrow; that is why we sleep. If we wake up and the problems are compounding, we will get many more prayer warriors to pray with us while we sleep even harder because we can’t take it any more.
But how did you get so convinced that they are actually interceding for you, when as a matter of fact, most of them are sleeping much heavily than you with their problems eating up their flesh like never before? Well, Jesus warns us today that it is better to get up and pray so that the temptation doesn’t overwhelm you, than to sleep.
This is possible if you will surrender your will to God and ask that He has His way. Suddenly, a touch from the Holy Spirit will strengthen you so that you are able to pray more earnestly. The more earnest the pray, the more strength, wisdom, favour, grace and gifts you download from God. It is these and the more that the Father can give, that fortifies us through the storms and make us victorious.
Jesus had every reason to pray: There was a Judas coming with a kiss to make it appear he loves the Master when actually it was a deadly kiss of betrayal. He had to pray because this Judas brings with him many soldiers to arrest Jesus for no offence. He had to pray because there was going to be a trial that will be unfair and a people who will want nothing than to see Him crucified. He had to pray because there was a cross to bear and sin of the whole world to carry upon His shoulder.
What about you, child of God? What is bothering your mind? Rise up and begin to pray lest you fall into temptation. Unless you choose to sleep your problems away, hoping that with time, they will by themselves develop into a “bed of roses” so that you can sleep even the more comfortably.
