Meditations

”When[Jesus] rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, He found them sleeping…”Why are you sleeping?’ He asked, ‘Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.’ ” (Luke 22:45-46) “I have given them your word and the world has hated them… My prayer is not that You take them out of the world, but that You protect them from the evil one.’ ” (John 17:14-15)

Many of our prayers seem to have a tendency of moving from a little gratitude for yesterday’s gifts to asking for a few more specific items which we are certain we need as soon as possible. But in His Gethsemane moment, Jesus commanded us to pray for something else of greater importance. Peter may not have gotten it that night, but eventually he would totally understand and he would warn us: “Be alert… the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” (1 Pet 5:8) “What is the most needed, yet the most dangerous, prayer you could ever pray? It is, of course, all right to pray over your concerns, but it is not enough. God certainly has plenty of grace for the moment, but the prayer that will bring you security and everlasting joy is also perhaps the most dangerous: ‘Your kingdom come, Your will be done, right here, right now, in my life as it is in heaven.’ (Matt 6:19)” (Paul D. Tripp)

Sometimes Christians forget that being followers of Jesus does not give us some kind of automatic protection in this broken world. We “fall asleep” at the very moment that Jesus has asked us to guard our hearts, and we let comfort be our preferred way. “I wish it was possible to say something more agreeable. Oh, I quite agree that the Christian religion is, in the long run, a thing of unspeakable comfort. But it does not begin in comfort; it begins in dismay at the fact that health and wealth do not cease to be difficulties when we surrender our lives to Christ. It is no use at all in trying to go on to the comfort without first going through the dismay. If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; but if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth – only wishful thinking to begin with and, in the end, despair.” (C.S. Lewis)  It may seem dangerous to accept His will over ours, but it’s the only way to overcome the devil’s constant whispers of despair and discouragement. (Acts 4:12 and John 14:12-14)