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“‘Why are you sleeping?’ he asked them. ’Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.’” (Luke 22: 46, NIV)

The most compelling temptation is not the urge to do something that is wrong, but it is the urge to do something that is good but falls far short of excellent. It is the urge to settle for the near-term tactical advantage at the expense of the long-term strategic victory.

Sleeping is not a bad thing. It is while we sleep that our bodies repair, refresh and regenerate. However, in today’s scripture verse, something was happening that called for a response from the disciples that sleeping could never deliver.

To choose to pray is to aspire to see the world as God sees the world. In prayer, we avoid temptations to settle for anything less than God’s will in the challenges we confront each day. – Luther

Tagged christianity, church, faith, God, jesus, prayer, readiness, strategic living, the book of Luke

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“Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.'” (James 4:13-15, NIV)

The late French President Charles De Gaulle is famously quoted as saying: “The cemeteries are full of indispensable men.”

To guard against “overplaying” our hand in this life requires humility, which may be defined as saying, “God, you are God — and I am not.”

The continuous acknowledgement of God’s supremacy as we move from assignment to assignment, and task to task, takes nothing from us. On the contrary, it gives each moment a will and a purpose that reflects the presence of the Almighty. – Luther

Tagged Charles De Gaulle, faith, God, humility, mortality, photography, poetry, prayer, the book of James

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“The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know. Pray especially for rulers and their governments to rule well so we can be quietly about our business of living simply, in humble contemplation. This is the way our Savior God wants us to live.” (1 Timothy 2:1-3, The Message)

As disciples of Jesus, we are we instructed to stay engaged as persons devoted to prayer — at all times and for all people.

Do not be discouraged because it seems that a prayer is too small to make any difference. Do not be discouraged because it seems that a prayer is too private to be heard. Great floods begin with raindrops; and the One who hears our prayer sustains the universe.

Pray first. Pray often. Pray for everyone. – Luther

Tagged devotion, persistence, prayer, the book of 1 Timothy