“Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.” — 1 Peter 5:8-9
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Baseball outfielders have to make a conscious effort to keep their mind in the game — it can be easy to daydream and lose track of the ball if they don’t. Many outfielders bend their knees and get in a crouching position during every at-bat to help with that. The center fielder is responsible to tell the right and left fielders whose ball it is on balls hit into the outfield. Sometimes a ball is hit in between two fielders and if they don’t communicate well, bad collisions may happen, resulting in injuries. I’ve also seen hecklers get an outfielder distracted so he doesn’t react quickly enough and the other team scores one or more unearned runs. It’s not uncommon to hear coaches say, “Look alive out there!”
We can’t get so distracted that we don’t get the job done well.
When the disciples slept while Jesus was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, they were sleeping on the job and didn’t realize it. They knew they ought to pray but didn’t understand that prayer is such an important part of our spiritual service for God. In reality, they were on the clock and sound asleep. “Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. ‘Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?’ he asked Peter. ‘Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak'” (Matthew 26:40-41). Jesus was a gentle boss, but He wasn’t pleased with these men who should have known better.
At that moment, you would have thought the disciples would jump up and pray with fervor and determination, but they basically pushed the snooze button (as we often do) when Jesus left again to pray. “When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing. Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, ‘Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour has come, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners'” (Matthew 26:43-45).
Jesus was fully awake and preparing for the torture of the crucifixion that was ahead of Him, but His disciples ran away in fear for a short time after sleeping when they should have instead gotten up and prayed with all their might. Maybe then they would have felt more prepared to handle the hard times, like Jesus.
After Peter and the other disciples saw the consequences of sleeping on the job, they made prayer a priority. In so doing, they prepared themselves daily to overcome the many schemes and tricks of the devil. Since Peter never wanted to deny Christ again, he tried to stay awake spiritually from that day forward and urged us to do the same. “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings” (1 Peter 5:8-9).
What about us? Aren’t we also guilty of falling asleep on our spiritual journey and neglecting prayer, Bible reading, church attendance or fellowship with believers? Sometimes we also daydream about everything under the sun and get distracted, when we should focus more on Christ and our mission to bring the Good News to the whole world.
Let us all stay alert.
— Bill Kent, Pastor of Memorial Baptist Church, Sylvania, Georgia
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