Pray Now, Rest Later

Question this morning. Have you fallen asleep while reading or doing some other sedentary activity? I know that I have, on a great number of occasions. I lie down in bed to sleep for the night and take on reading only to find myself 20 minutes later on the same page. It seems as though my brain has just given up and disconnected to allow for rest.

This morning I was led to the passage in Matthew 26 of Jesus praying in Gethsemane. He knew that His time was about at hand and was taking this opportunity to pray to God, His Father, about the very action and to ask what could be done. With Him He took Peter, James, and John. He asked them to stay behind and keep watch as He went on a bit further to pray in private to God.

“³⁸Then he said to them, ‘My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.’” – Matthew 26:38 (ESV)

Notice even the word was to keep “watch” and not just wait. They were to be doing work and not just waiting for Jesus return. And when He did return, what did He find, but the men asleep. And so, He coached them to again keep “watch and pray”.

“⁴¹Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” – Matthew 26:41 (ESV)

And Jesus went back to pray more. And returned to find them asleep once again. This time He left them alone and went again to pray. And upon His return, they were sleeping once again and this time as Jesus had completed His prayer time, he gave them additional coaching as the four of them moved on.

“⁴⁵Then he came to the disciples and said to them, ‘Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. ⁴⁶Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.’” – Matthew 26:45-46 (ESV)

What I am seeing here is that Jesus was letting the disciples know that there is a time for rest and a time for action. While He was praying to the Father, they were given the opportunity to do the same. No doubt they were tired from the journey and work they were doing with Jesus. He was able to stay with it and pray, and therefore the disciples should have been able to as well.

I believe that we all have good intentions and want to do everything for God. I know that I do. The thing is that I am human and will wear down. But, I have to remember that there is a time for rest and a time for work. Now is the time for work. Sometimes that work may simply be preparing and asking for guidance from God and that may be the most important work of all. It is in that work that we should dedicate our time to Him and take rest when He makes it possible once our work is done. Pray now, rest later.

When you are praying, what is your focus on the action of praying? Are you finding yourself drifting off into a period of rest? What if we treated prayer as action and preparation for more physical work later and took rest when we are done?