Lawal, J. O. (2025, March 30). Just one hour! From Pastor’s Desk, Vol. 12, No. 48.
Beloved: grace, mercy and peace to you without measure from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. I am delighted to welcome you to the transition week between the months of March and April 2025. My prayer is that God will daily strengthen your heart to do all that is right for you to do to remain pure and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
In order for our Lord Jesus, when His time came, not to shrink back from dying on the cross for the redemption of humanity, He needed to do one thing. What was it? He needed to pray. And how much time did He need to pray? He did not need a whole week or a whole day to pray. He needed just one hour to pray.
Now how did we know that all Jesus needed at that time was just one hour of prayer? We knew through Scriptures. As the account goes, as He saw that His time was at hand, He took three of His disciples, Peter, James and John, with Him to pray in a place called Gethsemane. But instead of praying with Him, they were simply sleeping. And that was because they were very tired. Just look at what the bible says about these things:
“Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Simon,” he said to Peter, “are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour? Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”” (Mark 14:37-38NIV)
Did you see that? How much time did Jesus expect these disciples to spend in praying with Him? Just one hour! Of course, Jesus could pray to God for more than one hour. Before this time, He had prayed on several occasions for hours, sometimes all through the night. So, He did not choose to pray for one hour on this occasion because He could not pray for more hours. Rather, He chose to do so because He knew that a lot could be changed or done through even one hour of prayer.
Now, of course, because of that one hour of prayer that He offered to God for His soul in that hour of darkness, He received sufficient strength and courage to die on the cross and obtain eternal redemption for us. But what about His disciples who could not join Him in praying for themselves for just one hour? They all went on to deny and desert Him. And if He had not prayed for them before that their faith would not fail, that would have been the end of their relationship with Him.
What is this teaching us, then? It is simply that we cannot measure or quantify what our heartfelt prayer can accomplish for us or for all humanity, even if it is only for one hour. In fact, just one minute of prayer can be the difference between life and death, success and failure, victory and defeat. How long did it take David to pray that God would frustrate the counsel of Ahithophel? It probably took him less than a minute. Yet that prayer changed everything about the rebellion he wanted to end. That prayer led to his victory over Absalom. (Cf. 2Sam 15:31)
Am I now saying that you should only be praying for just one minute or just one hour? No! To say the fact, there are problems that will probably take us hours or days of prayer to handle. But if we will learn to recognise that our prayers can change history, then, we will begin to make the most of every moment we have to pray, even if it is just one hour. And my prayer is that our hearts will be filled with adequate strength from God to daily walk in the light of this truth, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Have a pleasant week.
Copyright © 2025, Reality Desk, a ministry of Alaythia Bible Church –This material is the sole property of Reality Desk. It may be copied for personal non-commercial use only in its entirety free of charge. All copies must contain this copyright notice. Please direct any questions you may have to pastor@abcministryng.com or call: 08037592851 (WhatsApp Number: 08146472876)