By God’s grace, most lapses in precaution do not have such global adverse physical impacts. However, when Christians, especially pastors and leaders of Bible believing churches, have failures in spiritual alertness, then we are flirting with spiritual disaster, just as China flirted with international repercussions. An important area in which we must never lapse is our prayer life, both in our personal lives and in our ministry of God’s Word. This article stresses two ways prayer must not be neglected in your ministry.

We Must Be Prayerfully Watchful in Times of Personal Crises (Mt 26:37-41)

Crises filled the Lord’s experiences in Gethsemane on the night before His crucifixion. As He faced that night, He chose His “inner circle” of Peter, James, and John to be with Him. Those were the disciples that Jesus expected to be most supportive in His hour of trial, just as we have friends and family members whom we expect to encourage and assist us in our times of crises. And, yes, pastors and church leaders definitely face times of crises in their personal lives. Jesus needed their support since He endured great internal trouble in His soul, troubles none of them had before seen. Jesus desired them to remain near Him, and to keep watch, that is, “to be in constant readiness, be on the alert,”[2] to be prayerfully alert for Him while He prayed for Himself. Just as Jesus endured the greatest trial of His earthly life prior to the cross, so we can experience great trials. They may include the death of a loved one, loss of employment, abandonment by a family, waywardness of a child, or even COVID-19; but whatever the trial, most of us find it easier to endure if we have someone who is really with us, consistently upholding us before the Lord. This is the power and blessing of prayer.

In marked contrast to the disciples during His time of crisis, Jesus never doubted His Father’s consistent fellowship (Mt 26:39). He prayed, “My Father,” even in this time of terrible stress. He submitted Himself fully to the Father’s will. Then, He returned to the three disciples and “found them sleeping” (26:40), instead of discovering them watching and attentively supporting Him. Although Matthew does not specify exactly why they slept, Luke clarifies: Jesus “came to the disciples and found them sleeping from sorrow” (Lk 22:45). The disciples had been so overtaken with their own grief, because of all that Jesus had previously revealed to them, that they were worn out physically; they had no energy left to concern themselves with His sorrow and grief. Believers can sometimes be so self-centered on their own circumstances that they fail to support others in times of need.

At that point Jesus directly addressed Peter (Mt 26:40), but He spoke to all three of them, since the “you” in the verse is plural. His question rebukes their failure to be alertly prayerful for Him for even one short hour. Jesus then transitioned to a vital issue in the lives of the disciples, and in our lives. They not only needed to be prayerfully alert for Him, but they also needed to be prayer fully watchful for themselves (26:41). They did not know what awaited them, but the reality was that they, too, would soon face crises. Likewise, we must ask ourselves, “What crisis could be coming in my life? In the ministry of my church? Am I in prayer now asking God for His strength to meet it when it comes?” You may have heard this thought: “Cheer up, things could be worse. So, I cheered up. And, sure enough, they got worse.” How can we prepare in advance to meet the “worse” when it arrives? The Lord’s words, “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Mt 26:41) provide insight. His words that the “flesh is weak” warn us that we must never be self-confident in our own abilities (cf. Mt 26:33). Our mere confidence in self reveals how little we truly know about the weakness of our flesh, even when we have a proper inner desire (“spirit is willing”). “The human condition is one of inability to do what the spirit may desire. Good intentions are not sufficient, as the flesh must be empowered by God Himself to make God’s servant what he needs to be.”[3] The result of the disciples’ self-reliant indifference is that they promptly went back to sleep (26:43), and a short time later they all fled (26:56).

This concrete example of Jesus’ three closest disciples illustrates for us the vital importance of being observant in prayer. This must become part of our own personal lives, and we must encourage those in our ministries toward alertness in prayer, whether in small groups, Sunday school classes, church worship services, or to online viewers. Times of crises do come. The current COVID-19 crisis should pass away one day. But another crisis will surely take its place in our lives and churches. That coming crisis may not be a global pan demic. It may be of a different national or global nature. It may be much more personal and individual. Because we are sinful people, living in a sin-cursed world, we can be sure that crises will continue to arise. Regardless of how many, how soon, and how long, God remains faithful. Our strength must derive from the roots of our prayerful dependence upon Him.

Being prayerfully watchful in times of personal crises is critical, but it is not all. In addition to crises of personal life, we also have marvelous occasions when we can serve our Lord in ministering His Word. Those occasions also require alertness in prayer.

We Must be Prayerfully Alert to Preaching Opportunities (Col 4:2-4)

Paul wrote Colossians while under “house arrest” in Rome (cf. Ac 28:16 30), which was one of his times of personal crisis. During that time, however, he focused not on his personal crisis, but on the ministry.

Paul commands the Colossian believers to “devote” themselves to prayer (4:2), a word strongly emphasizing tenacity.[4] While devoting themselves to prayer, they must also be “keeping alert” in prayer (same word as in Mt 26:38, 40, 41). Continuing for a time in prayer causes weariness, so remaining alert is a needed component. How can we be alert in prayer? Three elements can assist us: 1) clearing our minds of other details, 2) deliberating more on God’s Word, and 3) practicing prayer at “unusual” times. Paul’s emphasis on thanksgiving in verse 2 can connect with this third element in particular. Think of a specific problem in your life—now, thank God for it, that it is making you more like Christ, making you trust God more, and driving you into His presence, as revealed in His Word.

Having commanded the Colossians to pray, Paul turns particular attention to prayer for his personal preaching ministry, and that of his co-workers (4:3).[5] Think of this! The great apostle Paul, official representative of Jesus Christ, founder of churches, and author of Scripture—that apostle Paul—needed the prayers of others to complete his ministry faithfully. The reality is that all of us involved in the ministry of God’s Word desperately need the consistent and faithful prayer support of God’s people. To this we must also add prayer for ourselves that we will be empowered by God’s Spirit in that ministry (Lk 11:13).[6]

What specific prayer does Paul desire? Remember that he is under arrest in Rome, constantly under guard (Ac 28:16), and in chains (Eph 6:20), but he does not request prayer for any of that. Rather, he requests prayer first for an open door (Col 4:3). Paul desired prayer for an opportunity to proclaim the Word of God, even though that was the precise reason he was imprisoned. Paul’s point is, and ours should be, to pray for an opportunity to come, and when it does, pray that we will take advantage of it and preach God’s Word. In Ephesians, Paul adds the request that he might have “boldness” in that preaching (6:19).

Second, Paul requested prayer for effective communication of the Word. Preachers may preach in such a way that audiences do not grasp accurate meaning. That is of little value. Instead, we should pray, and have others pray for us, that the preached message will be “clear,” that is open to understanding, visible to sight. I aim at making my messages understandable to children in the fourth grade. If they get it, there is a good probability that adults will get it, too. The goal is to clearly express the meaning of God’s Word, not to impress people with our great skills in speaking. Third, Paul requests prayer that he will preach as he “ought to speak.” The word “ought” means that this is an unqualified obligation.[7] We need to pray for ourselves, and have others pray for us, that we will preach God’s Word in the correct manner, and that we will not miss any opportunity God opens for us.

Why did Paul desire such prayer? Consider that when I pray for someone, I find I am bound closer to that person, and that my care for that person deepens more and more. Beyond that, when I pray with someone, I find that a bond develops which commonly goes beyond a mere earthly partnership.

These two special times of life, times of personal crises and of preaching opportunities, demand we be particularly attentive to prayer. As God’s children, each of us must consistently pray for ourselves and others in all those times of personal crisis; those times will surely come, and prayer enables us to meet them by God’s grace and through His provisions. Furthermore, we who are in the ministry of our Lord, whether in small groups, Sunday school classes, or as pastors and church leaders, must be prayerfully alert to the open doors of opportunity God gives us, and minister His Word in the power of His Spirit. We know what to do. Now, let us deter mine to practice it faithfully.

ENDNOTES

[1] “When will the COVID-19 pandemic end?” McKinsey & Company. September 21, 2020. https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/healthcare-systems-and-services/our-insights/when-will-the-covid-19-pandemic-end. (Accessed October 20, 2020).

[2] γρηγορέω, Arndt, William, Frederick W. Danker, Walter Bauer, and F. Wilbur Gingrich. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 207-8, emphasis in original. This verb appears in Matthew 26:38, 40, 41.

[3] Ed Glasscock, Moody Gospel Commentary: Matthew (Chicago: Moody, 1997), 509.

[4] The Greek word is proskartereō, and in this verse “emphasizes the persistent and sub missive perseverance and tenaciousness of a self-enclosed group collectively oriented toward specific goals” [Horst Balz and Gerhard Schneider, eds., Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990), electronic database; Seattle: Biblesoft, 2006, [italics in original].

[5] Paul’s co-workers would include: Timothy (1:1), Tychicus (4:7), Onesimus (4:9), Aristarchus (4:10), Barnabas (4:10), Mark (4:10), Jesus Justus (4:11), Epaphras (4:12), Luke (4:14), Demas (4:14), and even Nympha (4:15) and Archippus (4:17).

[6] For a discussion of the relevance of Luke 11:13 to our preaching of God’s Word, see R. Larry Overstreet, Persuasive Preaching: A Biblical and Practical Guide to the Effective Use of Persuasion (Bellingham: Lexham, 2014), 189-91.

[7] “In the NT statements with dei are normally understood more or less as divine decrees” (Balz and Schneider, Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament).