"Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise! Here comes my betrayer!" (Jesus-Mark 14:41&42)
I think at some point, when our spiritual eyes are really opened, we will kick ourselves for not taking the opportunity to pray God's power into so many situations.
We were too busy 'sleeping'-sometimes with our eyes wide open...fixed on a flat screen. Sometimes day dreaming from thought to thought-if not page to page of the latest catalogue (that has arrived conveniently at our doorstep...designed to walk us out of the realities of the moment and into the land of want and desire).
Don't get me wrong, rest is commanded-sleep is a necessity! Just be aware of it's various forms-of it's seduction. It's escapism. It's consequences.
"A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest and poverty will come upon you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man." (Proverbs 6:10&11)
I think we forget to factor in spiritual poverty-don't underestimate spiritual poverty.
Conversations that never happened. A mind stayed on 'stuff'...the next deal, the next meal, the next show, the next game, the next distraction.
The answer-of course-is not busyness. The answer is to WAKE UP spiritually...to realize 'the hour has come'. Look around you! Jesus is being betrayed all over the place. 'rise, here comes the enemy'...and he is hoping you'll sleep right through...everything!
After asking his disciples to "watch and pray", the text in the gospel of Mark goes on to say: 'When Jesus came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy, they did not know what to say to him.'. (Mark 14:40)
Those last 9 words haunt me the most: 'they did not know what to say to him'.
Savior and Lord! Wake us up while there is still time!
What might be accomplished if we truly prayed without ceasing. (There are certainly an unceasing number of things to lift up to Him in this broken place.)
And Oh the things we would have to say to Him, when he comes back!
