Prayer=Strength
Luke 22:45 When He rose from prayer, He came to the disciples and found them sleeping from sorrow, 46 and said to them, “Why are you sleeping ? Get up and pray that you may not enter into temptation.”
Imagine you were in the group of disciples with Jesus. You had gone with Him to Jerusalem for the Passover, and it had been a crazy, hectic week. They had probably not had much sleep all week. Jesus had been in constant demand; their was a continuous line of people requesting(demanding) to see Jesus!
Then they go to eat dinner, we call it the Last Supper. During that meal Jesus announced that He was going to die the next night; the disciples were speechless. Immediately after dinner He took them to the garden of Gethsemane to pray, and while Jesus went off to be with the Father the disciples could not keep their eyes open. Who could blame them, REALLY. It had been a hectic week, they were exhausted, and now Jesus had told them that He would soon be dead.
Jesus returned, and found them sleeping; but instead of “ripping into them” and calling them lazy bums Jesus told them that they should pray so they would not enter(fall into) temptation. Satan knows that when we are exhausted physically, Spiritually or mentally that we are at our weakest, and we are more easily duped into falling for his lies! But, the good news is that God also knows this, and is always there to help us overcome our weaknesses if we will only ask!
The Apostle Paul wrote in II Corinthians 12:9 “And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. 10 Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake ; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”
No one definitely knows what ailment the Apostle suffered from; there is Scriptural evidence that he may hay have had impaired vision, but my guess is that Paul suffered from many physical ailments due to the stress his body endured for the sake of the Gospel.
No matter what the situation was he was reassured by God that His strength would carry him own, and that if he would seek His grace then the power would be given!
Many times in this life we get to the end of our rope, and we feel like we’re fixing to plummet to our death. But, if we will only look to God then He will give us the strength to carry on. Earlier this week I heard a good friend of mine say that she was wearing too many “hats”(had too much going on), and that she was going to have to take a few of them off. Maybe, that’s what needs to happen; I don’t know her situation. But, I do know God, and if He wants us to continue in His work then He will give us the strength to continue.
My God is omniscient(all-knowing), omnibenevolent(all-caring) and omnipotent(all-powerful), and when we seek Him He will share with us a portion of His power!
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Father God, I thank You for loving me enough to send the Holy Spirit to be with me, and give me the strength that I will need to complete Your work.
In Jesus’ name, Amen
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Yes, You Can Ministry 