During His time in the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus began to be troubled because He knew the time had come for Him to pay the ultimate price for the sins of the world. Here He was, conversing with the Father, and hoping for the same kind of compassion and comradery that He had shown the disciples in the three years previous. After returning from His first prayer session in the garden, He found them sleeping, and His first order of business was to hold them accountable. He asked “So, you men could not keep watch with Me for one hour?” Of course, Jesus knew that they were tired and weak from the day’s activities, but He also knew the enemy and just exactly what he was capable of. Jesus reminds them to keep on praying so they might not fall into temptation.

              Sometimes it’s easy to fall into just doing enough, or just doing the simple thing. Let’s be honest, we all get tired, and we all have moments of weakness, and we wonder if it’s all worth it or not. Perhaps we’ve put in a long work week, or maybe we’ve had family at our home during the holidays. Maybe it’s ok to miss church once in a while, or spend precious downtime on social media, or even to neglect prayer because we seem to be doing ok. After all, God has all this under control, and He knows I love Him, and spend some time thinking about Him once in a while, right?

              If this sounds like your current walk with the Lord, don’t be disheartened. We serve a God that not only holds us accountable in the same way Jesus did the disciples but seeks to bring us back into a right relationship with Himself. Has your prayer life been lackluster? Start with a morning prayer, then pray again at lunch and bedtime. Pray fervently, pray seriously, and pray like you have an audience with the one true God, because you do. The reason Jesus woke the disciples and told them to pray wasn’t because He didn’t want to feel alone in His struggle. He woke them because He knew the devil was coming for them next, and in the same way the devil is hot on your heels, looking to make you stumble and become ineffective. Stay in prayer, and keep God at the forefront of your life. I promise you won’t regret it!

~Pastor Jimmy