Awake, Not Woke
Scripture
Mark 14:32-42
They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” He took Peter, James and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,” he said to them. “Stay here and keep watch.”
Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible, the hour might pass from him. “Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”
Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Simon,” he said to Peter, “are you asleep? Couldn’t you keep watch for one hour? Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Once more he went away and prayed the same thing. When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. They did not know what to say to him.
Returning the third time, he said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!”
We are living in a culture that increasingly seems to be obsessed with wokeness. Wokeness is awareness and attitude of being politically correct. Jesus never told His followers to be woke, but to be awake to the things of God. Staying awake spiritually is a daily choice men must make to stay alert in this spiritual battle.This was the most difficult moment Jesus faced. It was the point where Jesus surrendered His will to the Father’s will even though it would mean being separated from His Father. When the sin of the world was placed on Jesus while on the cross, God would have to forsake His own son. Jesus knew this Gethsemane prayer time would be the most tumultuous time He ever faced. Satan would tempt and attack Jesus. The flesh would fight Jesus as never before. Jesus asked His three best earthly friends—Peter, James, and John—to go with Him to Gethsemane. When they got close, Jesus told the three to remain and pray while He went on into the garden. What did He need from His friends? To watch and pray. Yet after Jesus poured out His soul in prayer, He found the three asleep. Once more Jesus begged them to watch and pray, and once again Jesus found them asleep.Jesus demonstrated for each of us the masculine quality of staying awake, not physically but spiritually. Jesus needed these men to do battle for Him, to intercede for Him. There is a great need today for Christian men to be awake to the things of God, be awake to temptation, be awake to what God’s Word is saying, be awake to the needs of wives and children, be awake to the unsaved men in our sphere of relationships and be awake to opportunities to influence people toward God. We need to admit that our flesh is weak, and the enemy is strong; however, staying awake spiritually is a daily choice men must make to stay in this spiritual battle.
There are five lessons we need to learn from Jesus’ encouragement to be awake:
- Men must admit that we are in a daily spiritual battle and only through Jesus Christ can the battle be won.
- Men must daily be aware of the temptations lurking everywhere they go
- Men must be awake to the needs of their wives.
- Men must be awake to the needs of their children.
- Men must daily pray that they would stay awake to the things of God and to the landmines that come from the enemy.
In the ongoing battle against oversleeping, humanity has devised some clever alarm clocks. But for all their clever designs, most alarm clocks still suffer from a common drawback: the fact that they’re not designed for multiple users. When one person’s alarm goes off, other people in the room or throughout the house have to wake up too. Most alarm clocks have no way to selectively wake up one person and leave the other person undisturbed. Until now, that is.Freshly launched on Kickstarter, Wake is a new breed of alarm that targets individual users and wakes up one sleeper without rousing others. Here’s how it works. After it’s mounted to the wall above the bed, the device uses an infrared temperature sensor and special body-tracking software to discern where each person is lying (without a camera). When it’s time to wake one person up, Wake silently takes aim, rotates into position, and then directs a tight burst of light and sound at their face.To keep from rousing other sleepers, the device uses a set of parametric speakers capable of focusing sound into a narrow beam. Think of it as a spotlight for noise. If Wake is pointed straight at your head, you’ll hear it loud and clear, but if you’re outside of the beam’s small radius, the sound will be extremely faint.Each day God has multiple alarms to keep you awake. This can come through being daily in His Word, praying, and being filled or controlled by the Holy Spirit. (Drew Prindle, Awesome Alarm Clock Uses Parametric Speakers to Wake You Up Without Disturbing Your Partner, DigitalTrends.Com (4-2-15), submitted by David Finch, Elk Grove, California).
Wingman, throughout your day, be aware of God’s presence. Stop, listen, pray, and seek Him. Pray that God will make Himself known to you everywhere you go and no matter what you are doing. Learning to practice the presence of God in every circumstance can revolutionize your life. Forget about being “woke” and focus on being “awake.”