I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 15th of April, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go to the Gospel of Matthew 26:40. This is Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane:

“Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “What! Could you not watch with Me one hour?”  

How much time are you and I spending in prayer at the moment? Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, it was the most testing time of His life on earth. He was sweating drops of blood. He was stressing out so much, full of fear and anxiety. He was God, but He was a man too, and He asked the disciples just to pray with Him and He came back and they were sleeping. “Could you not watch with Me one hour?” Folks, we need to really sharpen up on our prayer life. 

E. M. Bounce was a great man of God. He lived in the 1800’s, but most of all, he wrote books on prayer. He was a prayer warrior. This is what E. M. Bounce said, and I am going to say it slowly because it is very important that you hear this. He said, and I quote: “He who does not pray therefore robs himself of God’s help and power.” It is not God who is suffering, it is us. You see, when you pray, God speaks to you, and He gives you direction. 

Martin Luther, who was responsible for introducing us to grace - “and the just shall live by faith” - grace through faith, Romans 1:17 impacted his life, Luther said when they asked him, “What do you do when you get really busy? Do you cut back on your quiet time in the morning?” “No”, he said, “I get up earlier.” There is no excuse.

Sir, I want to tell you, spend less time preparing your sermon and more time in prayer. That is what I am doing in my latter years because many a time I have got up on the platform to preach, and as I get up on the platform, the Lord says to me, almost audibly, “I don’t want you to tell them about the subject of whatever it might be, I want you to change your message, and I want you to speak about something totally different.” That normally works out to be one of the best messages I have preached. We need to pray! Remember what we always say? When men work, they work, but when men pray, God works. And by the way, ladies, I am not talking about men only. 

Matthew Henry wrote the most extensive book, a commentary on the Bible, 6 volumes, but he was a man who used to get up at 4 a.m., and he worked on that commentary book for 8 hours a day, and he died at 51 years old. Today, spend more time in prayer and less time speaking. 

Jesus bless you and goodbye.