Keeping attentive in prayer isn’t simply about carving out some time in one’s schedule. Rather, keeping attentive in prayer must stem from a heart always in communion with God and a mind always prepared for battle. It is these two characteristics of a believer that should drive an attentive and diligent prayer life. 

They had one job to do: stay awake and pray. Peter, James, and John, often like the rest of us, failed to accomplish the one simple task they had. Christ took his most trusted inner apostolic circle deeper into the garden with Him as He went a stone’s throw further to spend time in prayer. He simply asked the three to stay awake, watch, and pray. Yet in perhaps an eerie foreshadow of Peter’s later denial, three times Christ had to come wake them up from their slumber. Yet how often does the slumber of the apostles on the night of their Savior’s betrayal simply mirror our own? Prayer is often one of the most difficult spiritual endeavors, a challenge caused by varying circumstances and reasons. Attuning one’s heart to the transcendent Creator of the universe is hard enough for finite creatures, but the task is made even more difficult when doing so while jumping the hurdles of life in a fallen world. To top it off, many of us have imbibed the western value of busyness, always jumping from one activity to the next without a moment’s breath in between. Our minds, in sync with the rest of ourselves, move from one subject of thought to the next, often revolving around what the next task is that needs completing or wondering what unexpected cliff we will encounter next.
Keeping attentive in prayer isn’t simply about carving out some time in one’s schedule. After all, Paul instructed the Thessalonians in 1 Thess. 5 to “pray without ceasing.” Surely he didn’t mean to tell the church there that they all had to quit their jobs in order to devote their time to praying. Rather, keeping attentive in prayer must stem from a heart always in communion with God and a mind always prepared for battle. It is these two characteristics of a believer that should drive an attentive and diligent prayer life. So how do we see these play out in the moment of weakness for the three apostles?
“Then He said to them, ‘My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here and watch with me.’”
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Some people have no wealth because they’ve devoured it for selfish ends (Prov 21:20). But when a person wisely sees their wealth as not “mine” but the Lord’s, there is a strong motivation to collect more of it and put it to good use in service of others. The Bible does not lay a guilt trip on such people, and neither should we. When a believer is faithful with a little responsibility, the Lord’s reward is to give them even more such responsibility (Matt 25:21, 23).

The book of Proverbs covers many topics and gets intensely practical. One of the topics on which Proverbs has quite a lot to say is wealth.
The struggle for many Christians is that our thinking about wealth is often shaped by influences outside the Bible. Sometimes we’re shaped by materialism. Sometimes we react against materialism in a way that seems spiritual but demonstrates the sort of asceticism labeled by New Testament authors as “irreverent, silly myths” (1 Tim 4:7) and the “teachings of demons” (1 Tim 4:1). And at other times, we simply allow rank fear and unbelief to lead us away from our hope in God and reception of his wisdom.
Here are five misconceptions about wealth that must go if we are to believe and receive the wisdom of God.
1. It will make all my problems go away.
This is frankly the lie I am most tempted to believe. Am I earning enough? Am I saving enough? How will I cover the costs of a growing family with all this inflation? How will we pay for college or medical needs? What we really need is a generous benefactor or a sudden windfall. Because if we had more wealth, all our problems would disappear, right?
Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death
Proverbs 11:4
According to the Bible, there is a problem we all have that is far greater than we imagine: our impending death. And God’s wrath against sin is real. My kids’ college tuition and my retirement package just can’t pay for such things. Only one thing can deliver us from death, or profit us in the day of wrath. Righteousness. And the entire Bible shows us how to get it (e.g. 2 Cor 5:21, Phil 3:8-11).
So wealth will never make your problems go away (see also Prov 11:28). But the amazing thing is that it just might help make other people’s problems go away. Wealth and people are both realities in this fallen world. But which one will serve, and which will be served? Use people to serve your wealth, and you’re in grave danger (James 5:1-6, 1 Tim 6:17). But use wealth to serve people, and the Lord himself says he is now in your debt (Prov 19:17, Matt 25:40).
2. I can tell who has it and who doesn’t.
We tend to think we can tell the rich from the poor by looking. And this is great, because then we know whom to ask for favors (Prov 19:6). But appearances are deceiving.
One pretends to be rich, yet has nothing; another pretends to be poor, yet has great wealth.
Proverbs 13:7
Those who appear to be rich often appear that way for a reason: They’re good at holding onto their stuff for themselves. And it would knock your socks off to find out which of your acquaintances are the most generous with their wealth. Because they are so generous, they tend to keep very little for themselves to flaunt.
One gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want.
Proverbs 11:24
I have been a support-raising missionary for nearly a quarter of a century, and I don’t know why I’m still surprised, but I am. Those whom I think could give generously to support the mission often do not. Sometimes, they look like they can because they have lots of stuff. Yet often, those whom I am afraid to ask—because they don’t look like they can afford it—are those who write checks in the thousands or tens of thousands of dollars.
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We can weep, we can be angry over wrongs, we can be upset about situations. But we can’t be bitter. And of course, if we are bitter, we end up hurting people. How can we not be bitter? Because God, Jesus is walking with us through the pain. And we have comfort and strength.

The topic given to me is, ‘Embracing suffering in ministry,’ and I want to take the second half of Romans 8, and present to you six words that will help us to be joyful in the midst of the suffering that we encounter in ministry. So, if you read the passage, you come to verse 20, which says, “The whole creation, for the creation, was subjected to futility. Not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope.” That’s the first-word, “futility,” or, as other translations put it, frustration. Things don’t work out as we expect them to all the time. Because of the fall, the world lost its equilibrium. And things happen that we don’t plan or desire. And of course, the pandemic has made it even more marked, as our plans have to be constantly changed because of the situation around us.
Of course, Jesus himself had to face frustration. We know that Jesus had a disciple Judas, who used to steal. I mean, the all-knowing Savior of the world, had the treasurer of his group, steal from him, take money from the common purse. He prayed, “Let this cup pass away from me,” but it was not fulfilled. That prayer was frustrated because God had a greater plan. According to that, Jesus came to serve incarnationally, and incarnational ministry means he had to be one with humanity and one with humanity as they suffer. So, Jesus suffered as people suffered, and we too must suffer. Our plans, ambitious, sometimes are dashed because of problems. Even while preparing for this talk, I found event after event because of the needs of people coming in to stop me from doing the preparation I wanted to do. This happens to us often as we are servants of people. Their plans sometimes supersede ours, so that our preparation has to be done with great difficulty like financial problems. I’m sure many pastors would be encountering financial problems during this pandemic. That’s what many are facing in Sri Lanka, as people are not working, and they cannot send their normal tithes to the church because some have lost their jobs. There are problems with the weather, lockdowns, sickness, and sometimes even death, unpleasant relationships at home, sometimes with spouses, problems that we encounter. And these are all coming under the rubric of frustration. So that’s the first word, frustration.
The second word is groaning. Verse 22, says, “The whole creation is groaning together in the pains of childbirth.” Of course, childbirth means there is hope something wonderful is going to come, that is that the creation is going to be redeemed. But even while we have this hope, we groan. Because now there is pain. And not only does the creation groan, but verse 23 says, “We who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly.” We have the first fruits of the Spirit. In other words, we have experienced God. We know he’s with us. We know our eternal destiny. We have had a taste of heaven already. But now, we experience pain and frustration. And so we groan. We have been given the freedom to groan by God, to express our pain.
Now groaning is different from grumbling. Grumbling is done by those who are disobedient, who are rebelling against God’s will. Groaning in the Bible is the groaning of the obedient, who have been faithful to God, and in spite of their faithfulness, they are experiencing problems, troubles, difficulties, and deprivation. The Old Testament Psalms give many laments, maybe 60 out of the 150, depending on whose classification you follow, are laments. And one of the most famous ones is Psalm 22, which starts with the words, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And Jesus took those words and made them his own. So we can weep. We can question God, like the psalmist questions God. We can express our pain in words, in sighs. We don’t have to bottle up our pain and our questions. That will make us depressed, and even bitter. God has given us the freedom to weep. In fact, I would say that groaning is the alternative to quitting. Some people don’t know how to groan, can’t handle the frustration, and in their frustration, they quit. We don’t quit, we groan. We express our pain to our colleagues, to God, and mainly to God. We express our pain. So that’s the second word, groaning.
Now we come to the third word, which is fellowship, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. The first part of verse 26 says, “Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness.” Though God is strong, still, while we live on Earth, we have weaknesses. Here, the particular weakness mentioned is that we do not know what to pray for, as we ought. I’m sure many of you have felt that with this pandemic that we are going through. We feel helpless. We don’t know what to pray for, we don’t know what we should pray about. Many of us, because we are leaders, ask God, “Lord, help us, help me, help me to say the right prayer to direct these people right in prayer.” There are so many situations that we cannot control, and we feel weak.
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