“Then Jesus returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. ‘Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?’ he asked Peter.” – Matthew 26:40
As we begin the fifth week of our 40-Day prayer journey, we come to the last of our “prayer challenges”. We’ve challenged you to take seriously the Bible’s call to fast. We’ve challenged you to imitate Brother Lawrence in learning how to “practice the presence of God” by thinking of God throughout your waking hours.
Now comes what some might think the most audacious “ask” of all. You see it in the title of the devotion. The Lord is extending to us the challenge to pray continuously for an hour straight.
Why in the world would we ask this?
It’s not without biblical precedent. The idea comes from the Lord Himself when he enters the Garden of Gethsemane on the night of his arrest to ask the Father for the strength he needs to face the severe trial of his Passion. He takes all of the Twelve with him and asks them, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray” (Matthew 26:36). He doesn’t want to be alone on this night. He needs the gift of their presence with him.
Then he beckons Peter, James, and John, his triad of closest men, further into the garden with him, and shares with them what he doesn’t share with the others. “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here and watch with me.” (vs.38). The word “watch” pertains to prayer but it’s an intense form of prayer. It means to “stay awake, to be on the alert, to be vigilant” – the way watchmen of old standing post on the city walls were meant to be when it was their turn to guard the city (cf. Ps.130:5-6). He wants more than their presence. He invites them to pray with him.
Jesus goes off by himself and pours his heart and soul out to the Father in prayer so earnest, it draws blood. But when he returns, he finds them sound asleep. They have abandoned him for weariness. He says, no doubt with pain in his voice, “Couldn’t you keep watch with me for one hour?”
But what’s the point? you might be asking yourself. That was for them, not me. Why burden me with something that sounds legalistic?
Let me answer your question by asking you a question. Are you saying that when it comes to prayer, the way in which you practice it is the way you’ll always practice it, and there is nothing more for you to learn?
The Lord is teaching us an important lesson in prayer here. Yes, it’s true that God hears all the prayers that come from our hearts, even the short ones. (Sometimes He doesn’t even need words. Sigh and groans will do – Romans 8:26). Yes, it’s true that Jesus taught us that when it comes to praying, we’re not heard “for our many words” (Matthew 6:7). Jesus could say, “Be healed!” and the leper was cleansed, or “Be still!” and the storm ceased.
Are you saying that when it comes to prayer, the way in which you practice it is the way you’ll always practice it, and there is nothing more for you to learn?
But it’s also true that when it comes to prayer, there are deeper waters the Lord would invite us to swim in. And one principle Jesus modeled, which all of Scripture reinforces, is that there will be times and seasons when we should seek God with far greater intensity than ordinary.
For Jesus, that meant praying with greater fervency. “In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him. And he was heard because of his reverence.” (Hebrews 5:7).
It also meant praying harder and longer, until he received the answer he was looking for. The case can be made that the reason Jesus’s short prayers were so effective was because of the spiritual power he stored up through his long prayers.
“You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart,” God promises us (Jeremiah 29:13). As the week goes on, we’ll provide more guidance on how to do this. For now though, just meditate on this verse today, and ask yourself, “What might be different about my praying this week if I were to seek him with all my heart?”
Close the door, play this song, and quietly sing along from your heart.