Yet, I Sleep.

“Get up and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation.”

Reading Luke 22 this morning, the echoes of these ancient words reverberated through the corridors of my soul. I was convicted—guilty as charged.

Just hours before he would carry all of humanity’s sins on his shoulders and in his own body, Jesus spoke these words to his friends, disciples, the men who would be responsible for his world-wide mission. He invited them to enter into and share His agony through intercessory prayer. But, they were exhausted with grief and the self-absorbed pursuit of moving up the leadership ladder. How could they sleep while their Master suffered? What a shame! Well, over 2000 years later, He speaks these same words to me.

I am in that garden, sleeping. My Savior invites me to pray with Him, but I am exhausted with grief and hopelessness, self-absorbed pursuits, and the lack of curiosity. My Savior has invited me into His pain. Yet, I sleep. My Savior has invited me to agonize with Him over murder, abortion, rape, slavery, genocide, infanticide, abusive relationships, failing marriages, oil spills, hurricanes, and earthquakes. Yet, I sleep. He comes to me and finds me sleeping. I’m found out. I’m embarrassed. I offer no words of excuse or rationalization. I was sleeping—plain and simple. I wipe the sleep from my eyes and the drool from my mouth, only to recognize that he has been praying while I was sleeping. He has been praying and agonizing over the pain, the brokenness, the sins, the fear, the anxiety, and the hiding of the world, and I have been sleeping. My Savior kneels alone on His praying ground, deeply troubled. Yet, I sleep.

Because I am sleeping, I am not praying. And, because I am not praying, I am more prone to fail. I am in the garden, sleeping, and I am prone to give into all kinds of temptations: irrational fear, unnecessary anxiety, blatant satanic lies that my sins can outrun God’s grace, the delusional belief that I know better than God and can control my own life, and feeding my flesh is more important than feeding my spirit. It’s time for me to:

Get up!

Arise!

Wake up!

Pray!

Intercede!

Talk to God!

Be devoted to prayer!

Enter into this exhausting, powerful, and intimate spiritual habit with my Savior.

Will you join me in being devoted to talking to our heavenly Father daily? Let’s awake and pray so we won’t fail Him and others we love.

(Source)

Faith = Hope + Action

Faith without action is dead, Apostle James says so.

It’s not okay to say that you have faith, and then sit around while waiting for what you desire to happen. True faith is manifested through actions… unless it is not faith at all. Action is the completion of faith, and hope is it’s first substance.

Imagine faith as a milktea. You can’t call it a “milktea” if it doesn’t contain milk and tea. Just as you can’t call faith, “faith” without hope and action. Those two are useless without the other. Like, socks. It makes no sense at all if you have one of them, you still have to find the other in order for it to be useful. One sock can be used, yes, but what for? Two socks are so much better.

Today don’t just hope. Take an action! Act like you received it already. Because you have.

You’re done getting on your knees to pray? Then get on your feet and work.

YMI Blogging

I blog not to impress, but to express.

You probably have seen that tagline on several blogs today, and I would have said the same thing in answer to the title of this article. But that’s cliché, and does not fit the motives on why  this blog is created.

I am blogging not to impress, not to express, but to bring glory to the God I serve. I am not good in writing, but I believe that when I am writing for His glory, He gives me what I need–ideas, topics, anything–to write a good article that would benefit His kingdom. It might be meaningless to other people, but I know that this thing that I’m doing does not count as a vanity to God. This is an eternal thing.

Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.
1 Corinthians 10:31

This blog is bounded by the “1Cor10:31 Rule”. Everything written here glorifies Him. Why? Because it’s all about Him, not you and me, it’s Him.