While we were sleeping Jesus was interceding for us.
“So he is able to save fully from now throughout eternity, everyone who comes to God through him, because he lives to pray continually for them.”
Hebrews 7:25 TPT
I needed that verse this morning.
While the disciples were sleeping Wednesday evening, again Jesus was praying.
“Then Jesus led his disciples to an orchard called “The Oil Press.” He told them, “Sit here while I go and pray over there.” He took Peter, Jacob, and John with him. However, an intense feeling of great sorrow plunged his soul into deep sorrow and agony. And he said to them, “My heart is overwhelmed and crushed with grief. It feels as though I’m dying. Stay here and keep watch with me.” Then he walked a short distance away, and overcome with grief, he threw himself facedown on the ground and prayed, “My Father, if there is any way you can deliver me from this suffering, please take it from me. Yet what I want is not important, for I only desire to fulfill your plan for me.” Then an angel from heaven appeared to strengthen him. Later, he came back to his three disciples and found them all sound asleep. He awakened Peter and said to him, “Do you lack the strength to stay awake with me for even just an hour? Keep alert and pray that you’ll be spared from this time of testing. You should have learned by now that your spirit is eager enough, but your humanity is weak.” Then he left them for a second time to pray in solitude. He said to God, “My Father, if there is not a way that you can deliver me from this suffering, then your will must be done.” He came back to the disciples and found them sound asleep, for they couldn’t keep their eyes open. So he left them and went away to pray the same prayer for the third time. When he returned again to his disciples, he awoke them, saying, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Don’t you know the hour has come for the Son of Man to be handed over to the authority of sinful men? Get up and let’s go, for the betrayer has arrived.””
Matthew 26:36-46 TPT
Be There!
Climb the branches of an olive tree and listen to His cries of agony. You have been invited into an intimate moment with Our Heavenly Father and His Only Begotten Son. All four gospel writers recorded these moments for us. They are important. The setting paints a picture of the crushing that is going on in Jesus’ Spirit. Jesus is praying in “The Oil Press.” Jesus was being pressed on every side – friends who wouldn’t stay awake with Him, a disciple who would betray Him, and an enemy who was coming to try to destroy Him.
“We are like common clay jars that carry this glorious treasure within, so that the extraordinary overflow of power will be seen as God’s, not ours. Though we experience every kind of pressure, we’re not crushed. At times we don’t know what to do, but quitting is not an option. We are persecuted by others, but God has not forsaken us. We may be knocked down, but not out. We continually share in the death of Jesus in our own bodies so that the resurrection life of Jesus will be revealed through our humanity. We consider living to mean that we are constantly being handed over to death for Jesus’ sake so that the life of Jesus will be revealed through our humanity. So, then, death is at work in us but it releases life in you.”
2 Corinthians 4:7-12 TPT
We are not alone when we have sleepless nights.
“So then, we must cling in faith to all we know to be true. For we have a magnificent King-Priest, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who rose into the heavenly realm for us, and now sympathizes with us in our frailty. He understands humanity, for as a Man, our magnificent King-Priest was tempted in every way just as we are, and conquered sin. So now we come freely and boldly to where love is enthroned, to receive mercy’s kiss and discover the grace we urgently need to strengthen us in our time of weakness.”
Hebrews 4:14-16 TPT
While we were sleeping, Jesus was praying continually for us. He knows exactly what we are up against because one starry night over 2000 years ago, He was up against it also.
Needed, welcomed,received, revived