Wake Up and Pray

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

WAKE UP AND PRAY

Luke 22:39-46

39 Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. 40 On reaching the place, he said to them, "Pray that you will not fall into temptation."  41 He withdrew about a stone's throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, 42 "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done."  43 An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. 44 And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.  45 When he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. 46 "Why are you sleeping?" he asked them. "Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation." 

NIV

Having considered the prayer of Jesus for himself, and that he always submitted his will to the will of the Father, and how that serves as a lesson for us regarding the very same with our will, we now must turn our attention to the prayer of Jesus or the command of Jesus regarding his disciples who include us. Temptation is all around us, and if we refuse to recognize we have temptations, we only deceive ourselves and call God a liar. Jesus told his disciples to stay sharp, to pray, to ask the Father to keep them from falling, or as the Greek word, eiserchomai means to enter and it is followed here with the Greek word eis meaning into, thus we should not enter into temptation. This follows how Jesus told us to pray when we ask the Father not to lead us into temptation but to deliver us from evil. It would make perfect sense temptations, of whatever sort they are, would be considered based on evil. We could spend a lot of time listing the many temptations that are common to man, but one person might be more susceptible to one or two particular temptations than another. We should also note that falling or entering into that temptation might simply be due to our humanity because we have not yet attained perfection. However, that is not an excuse, but simply a reality. Still, we should not willingly accept the fact that we are going to enter into that temptation, but when we are faced with it, if we actually see it for what it is, a temptation, we should go to the Father and ask for help to overcome it or to deliver us from it. We also need to be aware not to fall asleep exhausted from sorrow. In the purest sense of the word, they actually fell asleep, as they could not bear to think of what Jesus told them would happen. But in the extended form, we could use that falling asleep to mean becoming numb or totally unaware of temptations, we simply find ourselves not entering into, but already in the middle of the temptation. This would be the opposite of being on guard, keeping watch, keeping our shield of faith up, and that helmet protecting our thoughts. The key is always to pray and be in a constant state of communication with the Father. Prayer was the last and most important weapon against the attack of evil, the standing against all the temptations of the evil one.