“Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation” (Lk.22:46).

          The Lord has been waking me up at night to pray. Some nights, it’s been easy to just get right out of bed and spend a great time of fellowship with Him. Other nights…ugh! It’s so hard! I find myself trying to bargain with Him…if I don’t get up now, then I’ll spend more time praying in the morning. But I know that to a large degree, it’s the obedience-in-the-moment-no-matter-the-cost that He’s trying to train in to me.

          A few nights ago, one of the really hard nights to get up, He taught me a lot about how similar resisting sleep is to resisting temptation. It’s one thing to resist staying in bed – victory! It’s quite another to then actually STAY AWAKE for the next hour in order to pray. Likewise, it’s one thing to initially resist temptation when it first entices you, but quite another to stay constantly vigilant so that it doesn’t find you in moment of weakness later.

Am I taking care of myself and making wise decisions regarding how well I take care of my body (the food I feed it, the way I use or abuse it, the amount of sleep I get), so that when I’m called on to do something out of the ordinary routine (like get up in the middle of the night to pray), it doesn’t completely wipe me out? Likewise, am I taking care of myself spiritually so that when temptation comes, I am fully prepared to resist it and to run towards Him? Am I resting (abiding) in the Lord daily, allowing myself to be filled with His Spirit?

There were a few nights when I thought that rather than get up, I’d just stay in bed (where it was warm!) and pray. Brilliant! Until I WOKE UP 2 hours later having muttered, “Dear Lord, I pray that You…would help…me…stay awa…” Don’t we sometimes do that when we are tempted with sin? We think we can handle it – we don’t necessarily need to run away or resist it, right? We can just stay where we are and we’ll be fine. We’re strong enough – we’ve memorized Bible verses! But before we know it, we’ve crossed the line and we’re full of regret, shame, guilt…or all three.

I’m so thankful for grace…for when I fall back asleep and for when I don’t resist the temptation to sin. His grace is sufficient for me! His power is made perfect in my weakness! (2 Cor.12:9)

“My eyes stay open through the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promises” (Ps. 119:148). O, Lord, make this true of me!!