Agonize In Prayer Or Sleep Away Sorrows

Jesus warns His disciples to pray.  They sleep instead.  Why?

Luke 22:39–40 ESV “And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. And when he came to the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.””

Jesus Prays by Himself

Luke 22:41–44 ESV “And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.”

We know from the other Gospel writers that He would pray three times and be returning to check on them three times, finding them sleeping.

His prayer is one of humble submission to the will of God the Father, both in words and in posture.  His request acknowledges the goodness and sovereignty of God.  Jesus asks “if it is possible” because He is in agony and all is possible with God, yet, He desires His Father’s will even more, as He had throughout His life, noted by words “Your will be done.”  

The Lord Jesus knows that the Cross is necessary for the accomplishment of God’s will and purpose in redemption.  His crucifixion is unavoidable.  And He also knows that ultimately the Cross would be His glory (John 12:27-28).

God the Father answers His prayer immediately by sending an angel to strengthen Him.  Jesus is strengthened in soul and in resolve in prayer, by prayer, and in answer to prayer.  And so, Jesus prayed even more earnestly, as intense trials require intense prayer.  

He exerted Himself so much that He perspired profusely.  So much so, it looked like He was bleeding.  “Sweat like drops of blood” is most likely a metaphor, though some think this is hematidrosis.  This prayer of agony lasted about one hour. 

Jesus is Ready to Go!

Luke 22:45–46 ESV “And when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow, and he said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.””

Jesus doesn’t sleep like a coward, but moves forward in faith and prayer, fully aware of the future.  Jesus finishes His prayer and rises resolute to gain the victory at the Cross.  Jesus is ready to go, but His disciples are not—they didn’t pray, but slept.  He wakes up the disciples and warns them again to pray even now, but it is really too late.  Where will their prayerlessness lead?

The disciples were sleeping out of sorrow, grief, and exhaustion.  This is a common human response, as we well know, for we often do the same thing.  We “sleep on it” to escape; and we can gain a false sense of confidence and readiness from sleep.  

What they needed most was not sleep but spiritual readiness from time in prayer.  Sometimes sleep is what we need no doubt, but often the solution to problems is more prayer, not more sleep.

Jesus prays and is strengthened; His disciples do not pray, revealing their weakness.  Jesus, the Divine Messiah, knows He needs strength; His disciples, think they are strong enough already.  In His humanity, Jesus perseveres and sets an example for us.  Prayer prepares us to do God’s will in all our being.  If Jesus needs it, so do we.  

The disciples’ prayerlessness leaves them unprepared for doing God’s will.  They have lost this skirmish with the flesh, and it will show in their battles to come.

The Choice to Pray or Sleep

Jesus and His disciples made very different choices about prayer, which led to very different actions, and to very different results for their faith.  Jesus models praying in agony, while we as His disciples often choose to sleep in sorrow.  He rose with courage to face the fight, while we often find ourselves failing before our temptations.

This story opens (v.40) and closes (v.46) the same:  “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.”  The implied promise is that God will indeed respond, strengthening us according to our need.  

Prayer prepares us by communion with God, who gives perspective to our minds and hearts.  Prayer prepares us by the Spirit and angels who strengthen and provide confidence and courage.  Prayer is the hard work of the Christian and the Church; it is always a struggle in our flesh.  

How do you typically respond to crises, life pressures, enemies’ opposition, and temptations?  What is your usual faith level in dealing with such things?  Is it enough?  Perhaps, you have been sleeping when you should have been praying?

It is not a trite question, but a serious one, “have you prayed about it?”  Have you been praying, and do you continue to pray until you receive courage from God to face your situation directly?  Until you can move forward in God’s strength to do God’s will in your situation?

Have you ever prayed with such intensity that you broke a sweat?  We don’t have to pray this intensely all the time, but you ever?  Prayer is not always sweet and simple, or earnest and heart-felt, or set upon joy and glory, but sometimes it is really hard work and agonizing, even physical.

We should marvel at the resolve of our Lord Jesus Christ in prayer and courage, and then imitate Him. The choice was between agonizing prayer or sleeping away sorrows.  The outcome would result in either courageous faith or cowardly faithlessness.

Sunday Shouldn’t Feel Like A Funeral, But A Resurrection

I was running late that Sunday and rushed to my seat in church.  The lights were dimmed and then the dirge began.  

We started off our worship by singing this absolutely dreadful tune and un-singable song about our sin and death.  Why, why, why . . . why?!

Starting with a song like that was a stupid mistake.  But, continuing the worship service in the mood of a funeral was worse.  “Jesus is risen,” I wanted to remind the worship leader.  This means our sins are forgiven, and we rejoice, hallelujah! 

A Wake-Up Call

Visiting many worship services in many churches these days, I feel like a restaurant critic of churches.  This has its drawbacks for me personally, however it also has its moments of refreshment, and even occasional insights.

When I look at the expressions on the faces of people around me, and those of the worship leaders, the mood of the day becomes obvious.  Most often, I am overjoyed worshipping with a wonderful church, with wonderful music and being led into the glory of Christ!

However, I have also made a strange discovery in public worship services.  It is not uncommon for melancholiness and expressionlessness to be promoted as spiritual.  This is strange because it does not match up with the Bible in its primary examples nor its instructions.

Being melancholy is not pleasing to people, or to God.  Who wants to go to worship God and be depressed?  Yet, the saddest of situations is the deadpan mood, neither really happy, nor really sad, but expressionless.  How can anyone be expressionless in worship?!  

Sometimes I feel like I am at a funeral, when I know I am really supposed to be at a resurrection celebration; and that of Jesus Christ.

Sing a New Song

Psalm 98 is clear that we are to sing a new song with bountiful joy!  

What is this “new song?”  It is a fresh outburst of praise of the Lord, to the Lord, and for the Lord.  It is an anticipation of new acts of His deliverance and redemption.  At the same time, it is a renewed realization and acknowledgment of the Lord’s future.  It is a song that matches our experience with God.

Our new song we are to sing includes three verses:  Celebrating God as our Past Savior; Praising God as our Present King; and Anticipating God as our Future Judge.

Psalm 98 ESV “Oh sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvelous things! His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him. The LORD has made known his salvation; he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations. He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.  

Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises! Sing praises to the LORD with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody! With trumpets and the sound of the horn make a joyful noise before the King, the LORD! 

Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; the world and those who dwell in it! Let the rivers clap their hands; let the hills sing for joy together before the LORD, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity.”

Pay Attention to Mood, Because Everyone Else Does

When planning the worship service, consider the mood of the text being preached.  What do people need to feel that day?  What do we want them to feel?  Pay attention to the mood being set by the worship team, both in song, and yes, even in their facial expressions.  Everyone is watching and will be following.

So, how is your and your congregation’s singing sounding these days? 

Govern Your Heart

Life comes forth from the heart.  Our whole experience of life derives from what is in our hearts.  Our perspectives, meaning-making, significance-finding, even simple joy, they all come from the heart.

Proverbs 4:23 ESV “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.”

The Hebrew word translated as “keep,” more specifically means either protect or govern.  If the meaning is to protect, it is about keeping watch as against an enemy, that nothing bad influences the integrity of one’s heart.  If the meaning is to govern, it is about keeping watch as in restraining a prisoner, that nothing bad comes out of one’s heart.

Obviously, we want to be doing both, protecting and governing, but the second option here seems to be more likely, that of governing.  We are strongly advised to restrain our hearts from wrongdoing.

The concept of the “heart” in the ancient near east involved the whole person:  mind, emotions, will, and affections.  We tend to think of the heart as the place of intentions or emotions only.  The idea here is to use one faculty of the heart, the mind, to keep the rest of the person in check.  We must do so because the tendency of our hearts is to lead us astray.

Disney Has it Backwards

This can be hard to accept because it is contrary to the ever-present and popular Gospel according to Disney, which teaches relentlessly to just follow your heart.  Perhaps, this explains the common saying of Christians these days, “you don’t know my heart.”  They may just be defending their sincerity, but most often something more is going on here.  

Some use this phrase trying to escape an impending spiritual assessment.  For others it is a quick defensive move.  In more severe cases it functions as a way of putting oneself above the Holy Spirit and the Church.  Regardless, those who use the phrase often are in great danger of self-deception on purity of motive and clarity of thinking.  This is because the phrase is used to assert that they themselves know their own heart.

Again, we tend to think of the heart as the place of intentions or emotions only, and that they are good.  This is very dangerous way to think and live, to trust one’s own heart; Proverbs calls it foolish.  Don’t let others, or yourself, get away with this, rather guide them into the truth of Scripture and their souls.

The Truth of the Matter

On the one hand, no one really knows their own heart; yet, on the other hand, we do know how everyone’s heart works.  Here is wisdom worth pondering when handling ourselves and dealing with others, from Proverbs 20:5 ESV “The purpose in a man’s heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out.”

Ultimately, only God really knows what is going on in there, not even the person himself or herself really very much.

Jeremiah 17:9–10 ESV “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? “I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”” 

Proverbs 21:2 ESV “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the heart.”

This is why we pray like David in Psalm 139:23–24 ESV “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!”

Practically speaking, simply look at the four verses following Proverbs 4:23.

Proverbs 4:24–27 ESV “Put away from you crooked speech, and put devious talk far from you. Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you. Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure. Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil.”

Living the Proverbs

The fullness of life promised in v.23, “Govern your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life,” would be fulfilled in all that comes in the Lord Jesus Christ.

John 4:14 ESV “. . . whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”” 

John 7:38 ESV “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’””

Sometimes, we can forget the connections between the Old and New Testaments, but they really speak to the one and same final hope.  Jesus Christ grants us the Holy Spirit and His power and ability to perform the Proverbs at a whole new level as the New Covenant People of God.

Ezekiel 36:26–27 ESV “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.” 

Romans 8:2 ESV “For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.”

In Christ Jesus, we get to re-experience Proverbs from a greater perspective and with a greater purpose! 

God’s Rules For Using His Gifts

Spiritual gifts are often misused to serve ourselves.

Christians will at times use their gifts to advance themselves in the church and in the eyes of others.  Many use their gifts to get attention and recognition, to feel good about themselves.  Others use their gifts in the hope of finding their complete purpose in life and force the church to affirm it and them.  Some wield their gifts to oppose the leadership while claiming to be more spiritually-minded.  These are but a few examples.

1 Peter 4:10–11 ESV “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”

God’s Grace to Others

We should understand that our gifts given to us by God are for us personally, only in third place.  First, they are a means of God’s grace for God to get glory in and through them in dispensing his grace.  And then, they are for His grace in other people’s lives, not ours before them, but after them.

Each one of us has gifts from God to be used in the church.  These are all our talents, skills and abilities empowered by Holy Spirit for ministry in and through a local church.  There are lists in Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, and Ephesians 4; but here in 1 Peter there is no list, rather a going beyond the lists.  This is because God’s grace is of a very great variety and very amazing powers; no list could ever be complete!

This stewardship is a managerial task of ourselves that should cause us to be filled with the excitement of serving, and also shudder with the great responsibility to be used by God for Him giving grace to others! 

Speaking and Serving

The “speaking” and “serving” is not really to be seen as two sets of gift types, but more so as whenever you are doing these activities of “speaking” and “serving.”  All of us do both activities, and often at the same time while using our gifts in a church.

Common speaking roles include:  preaching, teaching, evangelism, singing, encouraging, and testifying, and a whole lot more, even every time we speak to one another.  We are to speak our words as “oracles of God,” not as though we are so important, or can really speak like an Old Testament prophet or New Testament Apostle, or other crazy ideas.  Rather, we speak with spiritual purpose into others’ lives and with God’s wisdom, not our opinions.  We speak with reverence for God, faithful to the Gospel of truth, with serious intentionality.  

Common serving roles include:  helping out, maintenance, doing things, giving, and merciful acts, and a whole lot more, even every time we work with or for one another.  We are to do our work in the “strength of God,” not in our own strength, or for ourselves.  We will wear ourselves out ministering from our own power but will be amazed at the difference when we work from the spiritual energy of God, how he keeps on giving it to us as we pray. 

For the Glory of Christ

The goal of using our gifts is to glorify God.  We want to glorify God the Father in our attitudes, our words, and our actions.  This glory is “through Jesus Christ” in that He founded His Church, and the Church is living out its identity as those who bear His Name.  We do it with Him in mind.  We do all things in the strength supplied by Jesus Christ Himself through the Holy Spirit.

This Jesus Christ is our God, the Ascended One, and to Him belongs all glory and dominion forever.  The doxology expresses our desire that all our powers be given more fully to Christ’s service even now in this world.  The coming end of all things motivates us to use His gifts.

How thrilling it is to be used by God as a means by which He brings His grace into His Church and into the lives of specific individuals!  Be ready and predisposed to use your gifts, and know that God will replenish you as you minister.  Follow His rules for using what are His gifts in the first place.  Focus on being good stewards of God’s gifts and being a means of His grace. 

They Strategized Without Us

Our national ministry partners held a mission strategy session without us.  We were surprised; and now they had something to share with us.

At the Beginning

We had all worked closely together for about five years reaching into an unreached area in Asia.  There was an American church partner, some foreign on-site missionaries and the national Christians.  We had become friends and co-workers in the Gospel.

Up until this day, the strategy was developed together though it was mainly orchestrated by the foreign missionaries.  We all felt ownership for the mission all along, but this moreso by the American church and foreign mission partners.  

This arrangement was natural since the national Christians were younger, and younger in the faith when the work was started.  The original vision was carried by the foreign Christians, and the initial ministry attempts were mobilized by them.

A Message of Change

It turned out to be a simple message.  Our friends felt it was time for a transition of roles.  They presented their vision of what they considered would be most effective in moving the mission work forward.  

They took ownership of the mission, its strategic vision and the doing of the ministry.  They would do a better job at all of this because they were from a similar near culture, but also because we had been partnering together for a while and had learned much from one another about ministry effectiveness.

The Americans would continue to be very useful, especially by providing ministry tools and ongoing training.  On occasion they could provide access to certain areas and help establish new and influential relationships.  Their personal encouragement, ministry coaching and life mentoring were desired above all.

The Shift in Roles

We were thrilled at what God had done in our partners’ hearts and in their meeting without us.  In truth it was an answer to an often prayed prayer for national ownership and leadership.  We are so thankful our partners sensed it was time for a transition. 

After that day, we learned it is one thing to rejoice and thank God together over new plans; it is another thing to move ahead and make them a reality.  The question before us all was this:  “Could everyone make the shift and play their new roles well?”  

It can be quite challenging for those used to leading to move into supportive roles, even ones of great significance.  And it can be just as challenging for those used to following and advising to become the primary movers of the mission endeavor.

When the time comes for mission roles to change, be prepared.  Some will not want to make the transition, whether it is about maintaining strategic control, or whether it is wanting the safety and security of letting others lead.  Yet, others will be delighted at the new developments and eager to figure out their new roles.  

Help everyone and pray with everyone to embrace the future.  This can be a time of experiencing the joys of new partnership, new togetherness and a whole new mission!