It was one of those rare, pivotal moments in time. When nothing really seems to make sense.
Imagine yourself as one of those disciples there. Walking along, faithfully following behind the Master, toward a place called Gethsemane.
The hour is late. And your feet, in step with his, feel as heavy as your own troubled soul.
How soon would Christ Jesus suffer so much, for so many. All alone there, upon his cruel, shameful cross. How soon would a thousand years of prophecy be fulfilled, at last.
It’s been a long day. Actually, it’s been a long and laborious three years. So amazing. And miraculous. And certainly life-changing.
But at this moment, all that you thought you knew now seems to be slipping away. There’s just no place to hide. Everything hurts. And it all feels like madness.
YOUR HOUR OF PLACEMENT
“Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder. And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy. Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me.
And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.”
Matthew 26:36-39
Have you ever been lost in the moment? Some place you suddenly found yourself, but hardly imagined you’d ever be?
Times like these are almost surreal. You’re much too close to the events—as they sting you with fear, pain and confusion—to understand them fully.
It is in such circumstances, within that battlefield of your mind, that you may discover the person whom God created you to be.
Jesus made his way toward Gethsemane, bringing along with him three of his closest friends. How shattered they must have felt, seeing their King there, so heavy-hearted. He is uncharacteristically sorrowful, and in much distress. He seems almost…desperate?
Jesus paused, to quickly instruct them: Wait here, while I go on ahead of you.
Imagine yourself there, with Peter, James and John. Struggling to even understand why you are there. Why He is there. What is happening? How did it come to this?
So immersed in the moment. You’re drowning in sorrow. Those heavy eyelids of yours so long to close, and shut out the relentless pain and despair .
YOUR HOUR OF TEMPTATION
“And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.
He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done.”
Matthew 26:40-42
What’s that? Something stirs you out of your sleep. The call of the Master. His voice sounds far away. Strange to you. His tone is labored. Spent.
He quietly questions you: Could you not watch with me, even for this first, critical hour?
You sit up, and do your best to focus. You shake off the fog you’ve been fighting. Listen up now! Your Lord is telling you something important.
Jesus continues: Watch now—and pray as you watch, so that you don’t fall into temptation. I know that your spirit is willing. But your flesh is so weak.
(Ouch.That stung.)
And you feel like a fool for not watching. For not praying. After all, your Master is trusting you. He brought you here—placed you here—for this very time and purpose.
You gain resolve, determined now to do better. You begin to pray: “Oh God in heaven, give us strength to face this hour. We really need you…we really need…”
It doesn’t last very long. And your flesh once more faints away, into the heaviness of the hour.
YOUR HOUR OF SLUMBER
“And he came and found them asleep again: for their eyes were heavy. And he left them, and went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words.”
Matthew 26:43-44
Time inevitably slips by. Jesus returns to His disciples a second time.
Sadly, Jesus finds the “prayer team” sound asleep, shut down, and out of commission.
But this time, He doesn’t bother to wake anyone. The hour is late.
The time and the opportunities for watching will soon come to their close.
Instead, Jesus leaves them once again, to return to his place of prayer, and to pour out His heart before the Father.
YOUR HOUR OF PASSING
“Then cometh he to his disciples, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest: behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going: behold, he is at hand that doth betray me.”
Matthew 26:45-46
Suddenly you’re reawakened. Startled. And you see Him.
The man of sorrows crouched before you. Christ looks so worn, so weary. Almost battered. What has happened? Is that blood there, streaking down his skin?
Before you dare to ask Him, He quickly commands you: Arise. We’ve got to get going. Look—the betrayer is almost upon us.
Suddenly, all of your sleepiness has vanished, as the threat of danger looms. What might have been “watched” for has ended. And what might have been prayed about has passed.
Those precious few hours of opportunity you once held were spent—sleeping. And it was when the real crisis hit, that you realize you’ve allowed temptation to take its hold on you. You didn’t realize it until now. But in this critical hour, you’ve forsaken your strength to stand.
He brought you to this place, and this moment. You were chosen to stand firm, through the hours of trial, along with the Lord. But as He said, the flesh was weak. You will soon find yourself fleeing the scene, as the temptation of fear takes its full hold, and overtakes you.
Fast-forward about two thousand years
A good night’s sleep can be hard to find.
As we are constantly affected by the news of each stressed and hurried day, the worries of our troubled days can spill over into our sleepless night hours. We’re often so busy, that all those troubling voices have no chance to be addressed until the quiet hours of the night.
I’m sure that you are feeling that same sense of uneasiness now, that we are all feeling. And although we may not fully understand this moment in time, there’s certainly no denying it. Most certainly, we are in the last days. And we wonder just how bad things might become, before the promised return of our Lord in the clouds.
If we can just take Jesus’ own words to heart, a confident place of rest can be found.
“But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.
Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.
For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch.
Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping.
And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.”
Mark 13:32-36
To “watch” in the Greek means: to keep awake. To be vigilant. With expectancy. To be spiritually alive and aware.
We know from the last verse, that the command to watch is for every believer, no matter in what time or place we may live.
Imagine someone telling you to watch for an atomic bomb to go off right next to you. It’s easy to realize, that kind of “watching” would be physically impossible. Such an event would be over before we could even know it had happened.
And it’s the same with the long-awaited rapture event. No one can actually watch for it to happen. It just happens. In a moment. In the twinkling of an eye. It will be underway before any of us can sense what’s going on. And yet, we are instructed to “watch.” And to pray.
We can receive some real instruction from the Matthew chapter 26 account. There, we easily see the need for wise and watchful daily prayer. Even hourly prayer. To be constantly awake and aware of our surroundings, and the time we live in.
These are such crucial hours—and so much is at stake. Let us make ourselves dependent on hearing from Him.
“And the king said unto him, Turn aside, and stand here. And he turned aside, and stood still.”
2nd Samuel 18:30
The Greek word for “stand” here, is to endure. Just as when a guard or a sentry is assigned his post, and stands firm and faithful at his assigned position.
But if we do not recognize our place, or our purpose, we will surely fall into some waiting temptation. What is this temptation, that awaits us, within the shadows of such moments?
Certainly apathy. Or self-delusion. Or how easily we might be distracted, dazed, and confused by the darkness of our days. Or to just become spiritually lazy.
In short, to fall asleep.
And by doing so, we risk all of the deceptions that will fill that void of an absent prayer life.
Just like those disciples, once chosen for that most pivotal point of time back then, so we are chosen to watch now, with wisdom. And to pray—with urgency and accuracy—about the things that we now see coming upon our world.
This is what “watchmen” do. They alert. They cry out. They bring those current situations and circumstances before the throne of God, to place them into His most capable care. To be truly watchful is to be tenaciously prayerful.
Consider what our Lord Jesus has been doing since He returned to heavenly realms two thousand years ago.
“Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.”
Rom. 8: 26-27, 34
We might say, Christ has commissioned us to “wait here” while he has gone on ahead of us. To pray—no longer within that crucial moment of Gethsamane’s garden, but now upon His throne of power and authority.
And like the Gethsemane event, we know that we are to watch and pray as well, through the presence and the power of his Spirit. Observing, knowing, and understanding the times, for they are evil. And making our requests known to God, through the powerful intercession of Christ Jesus.
Praying always, and for all people everywhere. It is to be a partnership of our Lord and His servants, just as it was intended to be back then. For just as then, this is our pivotal, proving ground moment of time.
“And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.
For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.
Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.”
Luke 21:34-36
Surely you can sense it now. The deception of the hour. The snare, that comes upon the whole world. And should it surprise any of us? We, who are witnessing such remarkable events?
Sadly, it appears that many Christians today have forsaken their place of prayer—their place of real power.
Brothers and sisters, let’s not take our eyes off of this moment.
A little sleep. A little slumber. A little folding of the hands. That sort of unawareness leaves would-be watchers wide open for delusion. We cannot afford such mistakes.
Remember, the snares of deception will overshadow the whole world. Some great, sleepy fog of unawareness.
And we are vulnerable to deception as well—unless we continue to watch and pray, and be energized and utilized by the Holy Spirit’s work of awareness within us. It is the call of the Master, unto his chosen. “Wait here. Watch and pray.”
“Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)
And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another:
and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.”
Hebrews 10:23-25
Here is a perfect example of what watchful, prayer-filled servants need to be doing right now—in this last days, pivotal moment of time. Sure, the snares and the distractions are everywhere now.
And that’s all the more reason to hold fast! Hold fast to your confession of faith! Never wavering. Never tossed, this way and that way, like a boat upon an open sea.
Assembling together with other Christians—not giving up on each other. To think about how we may exhort (encourage) one another—in love, and in doing good deeds. And even more so now, as we see the day approaching!
“Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.
See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.”
Ephesians 5:14-16
This moment we are immersed in is truly an evil time. The snares, the lies, and the darkness deepen with every passing day.
So now, more than ever, there should be no doubt. THIS IS NOT THE TIME FOR SLEEPING.
This is our pivotal moment of time. A time when, in many ways, many things might seem so lost and uncertain. When a lot of what we see and hear could lead us into confusion. Sorry friend—no sleeping allowed!
It is the critical hour, when all things will and must be changed forever. These last and final days, now looming large, just out ahead of us. Troubling and testing times, filled with confusion, sorrows, and plenty of deceptions.
But for the servant who is acutely aware of the spiritual significance of such times, these days hold an amazing opportunity—to be fully awake and aware. And to be actively engaged within these very last moments of opportunity, through watchfulness and prayer.
“And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep:
for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.
The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.”
Romans 13:11-12
Remember our Lord’s own words, to His tired and troubled companions.
“Could you not watch with me this one hour?”
My friend and fellow servant, our hour is now upon us.
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