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Mark 14:38 (The Message)

"He came back and found them sound asleep. He said to Peter, 'Simon, you went to sleep on me? Can't you stick it out with me a single hour? Stay alert, be in prayer, so you don't enter the danger zone without even knowing it. Don't be naive. Part of you is eager, ready for anything in God; but another part is as lazy as an old dog sleeping by the fire.'"


Jesus is about to be murdered. He is having a deep, highly emotional and intimate moment with His Father in heaven. He is in the garden, and His disciples are waiting close by for him. All He needs is a little prayer support from His friends, so He leaves them for a moment and asks that they wait, watch, and pray. And instead they fall asleep.

How insulting for Jesus? He didn't ask much from them. He didn't ask them to go die on the cross for themselves, He just needed some emotional and spiritual support. This whole situation depicts us in our human state perfectly. On one hand we want it all - we want the depth of all things spiritual and holy. We desperately want to be those whose who pray for hours on end, and those who are very connected to God. One the other hand, though, we're really lazy. Maybe we don't want it bad enough? That non-spirit part of us, the "flesh" part of us, is undisciplined and struggles in pushing forward in prayer. But here we are warned - we are told by Jesus to be careful in life because if we don't spend the time in prayer that we need to, we will be tempted in this way and that. Prayer will keep you sharp and alert for all the things that life will throw at you, and some days, you will not feel like doing it.

Pray every day. Start small. You may have been walking with Jesus for five days, or you might have been walking with him for twenty- five years. Either way, we all go through seasons where prayer- spending time with Jesus - is hard and even boring. So, revolutionize things. If you find yourself "falling asleep" in your prayer time then change it up. Go for a walk with Jesus and let it all out, sit on your own, light a candle and sing some songs to him, or maybe write your prayers out in a journal. This may all be nothing new to you, but my point is whatever you have to do to keep your prayer life alive, do it. Keep praying for everything. We cannot be lazy.

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