Sleeping Church

 "Then He returned to the disciples and found them asleep. He said to Peter, 'Couldn't you stay awake and watch with me even one hour? Keep alert and pray. Otherwise temptation will overpower you. For though the spirit is willing enough, the body is weak.' " Matthew 26:40-41

Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane. He knew what awaited Him; the cross and death. He knew the terrible price He was to pay in order to bring salvation to a lost race. In a ministry of great tests, this would be His greatest. He invited His three closest disciples, Peter, James, and John, to join Him in prayer, for strength to face what lay just ahead. Christ prayed, and the three disciples slept.

We tend to be hard on the disciples, but how like them are we? Jesus had been telling them what was coming, and His words had to have had an emotional and physical effect. Likely, when He took them with Him to pray, they were preoccupied with what all of it meant. They were worn out emotionally and physically with what all of it meant. So much so that they were unable to "watch and pray" with Him. Here's a question for you and me; What so preoccupies us that we are unable to watch and pray ourselves? What is wearing us down, and wearing us out to the point we cannot live out this desperately needed ministry? Jesus told them to keep alert, to watch, and to pray. He asks the same of us, His church. They slept, and for the most part, so do we? It cost the disciples. All of them fled when Jesus was arrested. In some manner, they all denied Him, most especially Peter, who did so three times. As we imitate them, what will be the cost to us?

In my prayer journal I have written down, "Lord, teach me what it is to watch and pray." I wrote that down many years ago, but I know I'm still far from learning what He would have me to know and live out. I cannot, we cannot, remain unknowing of this ministry. The church in America is entering into a time never before known to it. What is happening around us is going to affect us on every level of life; our ministries, our relationships, our livelihoods, our marriages, and our families. We cannot be sleeping. We must be awakened. We must be watching with the eyes of the Spirit, and praying in the power of the Spirit. If we will not, we, like the disciples, will be scattered, tempted to deny Him, and worst of all, in too many cases, outright denying Him. Our defense, which is really an offense, is to be alert, to be watching with His eyes and heart of discernment, and to be living and moving on our knees in prayer. Then, whatever comes, we will be equipped to not only face it, but to overcome it. All of it.

Where do you need to be awakened? Where does the fellowship you're a part of need an awakening? I once heard someone describe sleep as a small example of death. I think they meant it was so because we're unconscious during it, and for the most part, powerless and lifeless. In the spiritual sense, a sleeping church is definitely very close to being a dead one. I have no desire to be part of such a Body, and no desire to be such a person. How about you? Christ calls His church to come awake, to be alive, to be watching and praying. Christ asked His disciples if, when He returned, would He find faith on the earth? In what condition will He find us? Watching and praying or....sleeping.....and near death?

Blessings,

Pastor O