Rise and Pray

In my daily Bible reading yesterday morning, the New Testament portion was Luke 22. As I read about Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane just before Judas betrayed Him, this verse got me thinking:

Luke 22:45-46
“When He rose up from prayer, and had come to His disciples, He found them sleeping from sorrow. Then He said to them, “Why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation.”

What I got to thinking about is what an incredible privilege we have to approach the very throne of God in prayer. That He would wash me in His blood, cleansing me from my wretched, miserable sin and accept me by His grace and hear my prayers is an incredibly amazing thought. I neglect this privilege to my shame. How many times would it have been less easy for me to give in to temptation if I had spent real, repentant, soul-searching, on-my-face-before-His-holiness time in prayer before starting the day?

I desire to see true revival happen. I am concerned by the lack of discernment and mind-numbing biblical illiteracy happening in the Church today. I want to be a faithful follower of Christ and a good wife and mom.

Why, oh, why, then do I so often neglect deep, rich prayer time? Why does it sometimes seem so hard to focus my mind and pray thoughtfully? I seem to be able to concentrate on so many other things, but when it comes time to be alone in my prayer closet I seem to get distracted. It seems that the earlier I try to get up, the earlier the baby gets up as well. Then when I do have some quiet moments, I too often tend to let other things encroach when I could be praying, or when I do sit down to pray, I suddenly get so sleepy I can hardly stay awake.

While Jesus was on earth, He often went alone to pray – so much so that His disciples asked Him to teach them how to pray. They saw how important it was to Him. I want it to be important to me, too. I am learning to set aside time throughout the day to concentrate on praying with my heart, soul, mind and strength. This is not something that is a new concept, but something I want to devote time and energy to, because we are commanded in scripture to pray without ceasing. The greatest commandment is to love the LORD our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and the second greatest commandment is to love our neighbors as ourselves. As I spend time concentrating on Who the LORD is and worshiping Him in spirit and truth and praying for my family, friends and neighbors, these commands begin to characterize how I live, by the power of the Holy Spirit working in me.

The times when I get to where I really, truly with all that I am think about and remember Who it is to whom I pray, and remember the great, precious cost that was paid so that I, a pitiful, wretched sinner who has been shown such mercy, might have that privilege of going before the very throne of God, I begin to take prayer much more seriously. Grace is the free gift of God, through faith in Jesus Christ. But it is not cheap. Nothing less than His precious blood shed for me has redeemed me, reconciled me to God and granted me access to Him. What joy there is in knowing that I can pray to God, and He knows my name! He knows my thoughts and my ways, and He works all things for my good and for His glory! May I fix my eyes on Jesus, my great High Priest, and fall to my knees before Him. May I learn to spend much more time rising and praying so my heart will be conformed to His will and prepared to obey Him and love Him and understand His word.