“Could you not keep watch with me for just one hour”, says Jesus to his disciples in Matthew 26:40.

This morning I woke up around 4:00am, distressed and fearful for what’s to come in our world, our country, our lives. I felt a strong desire to pray…but whined to God….it’s early. I’m tired. I want to sleep. But he reminded me that the spirit is willing even when the body is weak. I wanted to sleep. But He wanted me to pray.

As I got out of bed and began to pray, I imagined the sorrow that Jesus felt when He knew what was ahead of him. He knew the physical pain He was about to suffer so the glory of the Father could be made known. He knew what he had to do to redeem us. He knew what he had to do so we could find peace. He knew where His courage would come from. And all he asked his disciples to do was to pray. To stand watch, stay awake, and pray. Yet they did not.

It’s tempting for us to just go back to sleep. To not know what to pray, or how to pray, or not have time to pray. But Jesus reminds us that our source of strength, our source of courage, our source of peace is only found from our Father. He will hear us, help us know what to pray (Romans 8:26), and respond if we’ll just wake up and pray.

“Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me”….”I am the way, the Truth, and the life and no one comes to the Father except through me”.

John 14:1,6