“Stay awake and pray, so that you won’t enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (v. 41)

We tend to count prayer, which is a discipline, as purely spiritual.

Think of the most spiritual people you know. My guess is that, when you profile their lives, prayerfulness is part of the picture. It would be bizarre to count someone as “spiritual” if they lack a devotion in prayer.

But what if prayer is more?

Jesus, on that horribly dark night in Gethsemane, urges His disciples to remain in prayer. That’s certainly a spiritual task—and it’s one their hearts seem to jibe with. Yet they keep falling asleep! Their flesh isn’t on board!

Prayer is actually a holistic discipline. It demands a heart that beats for Jesus and a body that submits to devotion. A lot of us start each year with a desire to pray more—a willing spirit!—yet we never apply our flesh to it. We fall short of disciplining our schedules and our attention span and our physical activity for the purposes of prayer. Our hearts may want to go there, but the flesh is asleep at the wheel.

Do you hope to remain in prayer this coming year? Then add the physical discipline to the spiritual. Clear the calendar and hone your attention span. Be determined to be awake.

— Tyler