“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 flesh is weak.” (Mk. 14:37b-38)
During this season of Lent, I am reminded of how Jesus earnestly prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane to the point of sweating drops of blood. What made Him pray like that? He was praying that He would do the will of His Father. He urged His disciples to do the same and said: “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” (Mk.14:38), but they kept falling asleep! We are all so prone to fall asleep and not pray. Later on, Peter, in one of his letters to the church, passed on to us this same lesson when he said: “The end of all things is near. Therefore, be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray.” Personal time with God is vital to “praying without ceasing” but, when we gather together to pray, it also is vital to us staying awake and resisting the temptations we face every day of our lives. We’ve just gone through a couple of rough years and we aren’t sure the future will look any better with a war going on in Europe. Open Doors notes that for the first time in its World Watch List 29-year tenure, every country in its top 50, where Christians face the most severe types of persecution, is now ranked as experiencing very high or extreme levels of persecution, scoring more than 60 points out of 100. I don’t think we can assume that business is going to be as usual in the days ahead. I don’t know about you, but I dearly want to stay true to the Lord no matter what may come and I believe that an ever deepening prayer life is key to that. Your church and our movement becoming a House of Prayer will be a great help to us in growing and maintaining that kind of prayer life. Even Jesus, while in the Garden of Gethsemane wanted others to help Him pray that God’s will would be done in and through His life.
