05/07/2021
We read the account of Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, and how His disciples kept falling asleep when they should have been keeping watch. As we read this we just can’t understand how they could have possibly been so negligent, but aren’t all of us falling asleep in similar fashion today? How well do we manage our time? Do we allot an hour to pray, keep our eyes open and fixed on the Lord as we offer our prayers, or watch vigilantly for His return?
“And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour?”
Matthew 26:40 ESV
When my wife and I were first married I moved her from Nashville to Northern Virginia where I worked two jobs, and attended school in the day to complete my technical training in computer programming. It was often late when I returned home, and my new bride, who had been alone all day in a strange city, wanted nothing more than to feed me a homemade dinner, and talk about all we had done that day. I remember falling asleep in mid-sentence while trying to talk to her, and sometimes talking gibberish in a half-asleep daze. There are times when we allow the world to take precedence over what should be more important to us, a new wife, family, and more than these... our relationship with God.
Sometimes I find myself lacking when it comes to praying. I sit down at the table for a meal and am so preoccupied with a conversation that suddenly I realize I am taking a bite of bread, or a sip from my cup without having first offered God thanks, or remembering Jesus Christ as I should have. At other times I am so tired from a day’s work that I fall asleep in mid-sentence as I am praying my evening prayer. I wake up the next morning, and apologize to the Lord for not asking Him for the strength and endurance I needed the night before while I prayed. This happened in the Garden of Gethsemane, and it still happens to us today. I was reminded of this as I read a devotional message this morning that was written by Andrew Murray in the late 1800s. Listen as he corrects us for not having time for God...
“And for God, the great God, who has a rightful claim to our lives and who longs for us to spend time with Him so that He can transfer His power and grace to us, we do not have time. “ - Andrew MurraY
In the Old Testament we are told that there is a time for everything, but there appears to be an obvious oversight to this passage. Let’s read it and see if we can find it...
“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.”
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 ESV
If you asked yourself the question “where is the time for God, worship, or faith?” Then you have hit the nail on the head. This scripture catalogs how we spend time on all the things of an earthly life, but doesn’t single out a specific time for us to seek God, pray, or do the other things of faith. The implication here is that our faith doesn’t have a beginning or end, it is intertwined in every one of these life moments, and times. God is in all of these things... our relationship with Him is everything, and spans all time. Once we have established our understanding of that, then the worldly things can be given to us in season.
“Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
Matthew 6:31-33 ESV
Does it interest you that God doesn’t allocate a specific time for us to be with Him, yet we take this upon ourselves? We set aside time for morning, mid-day, and evening prayers. We slice out a few hours on the Sabbath to attend worship, there is Wednesday evening given over to Bible study, and we set aside certain days, for feasting, and call them Holy. We do this in place of realizing that God is with us always, we try to allocate Him specific times, and yet He tells us to pray without ceasing, and to seek His presence continually...
“Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually!”
1 Chronicles 16:11 ESV
But allocate as we will, we still wake up to hear Jesus chiding us...
“And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again. Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.”
Matthew 26:43-45 ESV
God knows this about our human nature, and Jesus being a man, allocated time to His days too. He even told his disciples that the time had come for His crucifixion...
“And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.”
John 12:23 ESV
““Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.””
John 12:27-28 ESV
So even today we fall asleep while Jesus is praying, and we carve out seasons and moments in our lives as if they were separate from the holy times we spend with God. Today let’s concentrate on something very different as we approach our faith... let’s forget about our hour of prayer and pray continuously in all things, and let’s forget about carving out a time to worship God, and replace it with continuous worship in all we do. Can we manage to keep our hearts, and eyes open as we do these things?
Prayer:
Father, thank you for being with us always, and for the continuous and uninterrupted nature of our relationship. Thank you for the time and seasons you have established in the world, but thank you most for not binding our faith to them. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who is everlasting, and not bound by your creation... time. Praised be your name for ordering all of your creation by dividing it into days, and for further separating it as we walk through our lives; hour by hour, and minute by minute. Merciful are you as you forgive us our weaknesses, and reset us in time when we fail you within it. Your grace abounds as you see our seasons of sin, and you call us from them through Jesus. Give us strength, and perseverance Father as we pray, and offer ourselves continuously to you. Let no semblance of time stand in our way as we grow in our relationship with you. Wash the sin, and all evidence of time, from us with the blood of Jesus as we seek to join you in eternity. Find us worthy forevermore in the perfection of Christ, and find that we are eternally awake in Him.
“But I trust in you, O Lord; I say, “You are my God.” My times are in your hand; rescue me from the hand of my enemies and from my persecutors!”
Psalm 31:14-15 ESV
Rich Forbes