“At last he stood up again and returned to the disciples, only to find them asleep, exhausted from grief. ‘Why are you sleeping?’ he asked. ‘Get up and pray. Otherwise temptation will overpower you.’”
- Luke 22:45-46
Some of my favorite testimonies are those where someone was living in doubt, and they were refusing to various degrees what God was asking them to do. Then there comes a breaking point where they give up resisting and decide to be obedient. In doing so they jump out of their comfort zones and wind up with an amazing story about God’s work being done and they got to witness it. They are super cool stories of jumping out of one’s comfort zone. Many of us may have those stories, and I know I have a couple.
Here’s the catch though, are you currently too comfortable? That is something I’m asking myself as well, am I too comfortable? Are we getting lethargic?
Sleepy Disciples:
On the night in which Jesus was betrayed, Jesus went to pray to the Father. If it were possible that this cup of suffering might pass, that if there was another way to save and restore humanity to be in relationship with God. But in that prayer, Jesus affirms He is fully submitted to the will of God, allowing the Father to decide the way forward to save humanity. Three times Jesus comes back from praying that same prayer, having charged his core 3 disciples to stay awake and keep watch with Him, and He finds them sleeping.
To stay awake and keep watch with Jesus was another way of asking them to be in prayer with Him. Chances are, this isn’t the first time they have been asked to keep watch praying throughout the night or when awake during the night was a common practice until the last hundred-some years. In this charge, it was quite simple to be awake and pray with Jesus, but they were exhausted. Coming out of the Passover celebration the disciples were filled up with a lamb roast, carbs, and wine, it’s their thanksgiving dinner. So obviously they are going to be tired, but if they only understood that Jesus was going to be arrested in a couple of hours and put on the cross within the next 24 hours, perhaps they would be awake and urgently praying.
If only they knew, perhaps they would have exercised faith and urgently and patiently been praying for the cup of suffering to also pass, that perhaps the scriptures could be fulfilled another way. Whatever it might have been, they should have been awake and alert that evening and responsive to what Christ was asking of them. Yes, they are not seriously punished or cursed for their sleeping, but there’s a better way, and clearly, Jesus wanted something different for them.
As His disciples, they were to walk in His very steps, to imitate His very actions and commands, and yet they fell asleep, and fell short of following Christ fully. While they would become great church leaders, they still fell short that night of following.
Sleepy Christians:
As I write this, I just drank some coffee hoping to wake myself up enough to have a productive homework night. My eyes are heavy, rest is on my brain, and I want nothing more than a Spring Break. God does want us to rest, I hope you don’t hear that we should never rest, never live in the moment, or have enjoyment in life. But what I am saying is we need to guard against being lethargic and lazy. We need to get to work in the most crucial times and be obedient to what Christ is calling us to at the moment.
For me, this very devotional website is an act of obedience to what I believe God has been calling me to. On Beautiful Feet is all about equipping and empowering myself and you readers to be able to share the Gospel of Good News and Peace. I hope you learn interesting things about the scriptures, and I hope you walk away thinking about God, but ultimately my hope and direction and call from God is toward the proclamation of the Gospel. Since the first week of January 2020, I have been writing on a weekly basis and tempted to skip weeks from time to time, but I don’t, because I must be obedient and attentive to the work Christ has for me.
When we become lethargic, we are being tempted to be disobedient and to seek a way that is not the way of Christ. We must be on guard. Awake and alert Christians are guarded against the possibility of slipping into sinful thoughts, behaviors, and patterns. They are awake and moving to be obedient to the will of God.
The Will of God:
When it comes to understanding the will of God, it is both simple and complex. It is simple in that if you take to time to read and understand the life and teachings of Christ you will understand God’s desires for humanity. It’s complex when we try to think about the big decisions of life today. Does God want me to study Business or Ministry? I don’t know, scripturally speaking you can fulfill the will of God doing either.
Thankfully, we have been given the Holy Spirit. When we are awake and alert Christians, we lead of life of prayer, patience, and dependence on God who reveals things to us through the Holy Spirit. We commune with the Holy Spirit when we are praying, reading scripture, and generally doing other spiritual disciplines. This does not mean we force the hand of God; it means we are seeking the way He is working and wants us to join. I like to believe that regardless of the decisions we make, God has us right where we need to be to learn to become more like Christ. To do this with confidence and faith though, we need to be awake and alert in prayer, seeking the will of the Father, following the way of the Son and learning hard into the Spirit.
Final Blessing:
Let us not have lethargic faith, that simply lets God work and never decides to join. That’s not what God wants for us. We must resist the temptation to doing something our way and instead fervently seek the will of God in prayer and patience.
Now may the Lord of Life and Redemption be with you in every step, every breathe, and every heartbeat of your journey.
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