November 8, 2012 …Watch and Pray!

Chronological Bible Reading Plan - Day 313

 Passage of the Day: Reference of Today’s Chronological Bible Study: Matthew, Chapters 26 To study these chapters, go to this link -
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Passage of the Day: Reference of Today’s Chronological Bible Study: Mark, Chapters 14 To study these chapters, go to this link -

Highlight Passages: Matthew 26: 36-40 : [NLT] … {This passage, from Matthew 26, and paralleled by Mark and Luke, is deeply convicting for me. How about you? … See my comments below in my journal entry.} 36 Then Jesus brought them to an olive grove called Gethsemane, and he said, “Sit here while I go on ahead to pray.” 37 He took Peter and Zebedee’s two sons, James and John, and he began to be filled with anguish and deep distress. 38 He told them, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and watch with me.” 39 He went on a little farther and fell face down on the ground, praying, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will, not mine.” 40 Then he returned to the disciples and found them asleep. He said to Peter, “Couldn’t you stay awake and watch with me even one hour? 41 Keep alert and pray. Otherwise temptation will overpower you. For though the spirit is willing enough, the body is weak!” …
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Highlight Passages: Mark 14: 32-38 : [NLT] … {Here is Mark’s version of the passage I’ve selected for journal entry today. } 32 And they came to an olive grove called Gethsemane, and Jesus said, “Sit here while I go and pray.” 33 He took Peter, James, and John with him, and he began to be filled with horror and deep distress. 34 He told them, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and watch with me.” 35 He went on a little farther and fell face down on the ground. He prayed that, if it were possible, the awful hour awaiting him might pass him by. 36 “Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will, not mine.” 37Then he returned and found the disciples asleep. “Simon!” he said to Peter. “Are you asleep? Couldn’t you stay awake and watch with me even one hour? 38 Keep alert and pray. Otherwise temptation will overpower you. For though the spirit is willing enough, the body is weak.”  
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Reference Passage: Luke 22: 39-46 : [NLT] … {Though not assigned for today, this is Luke’s version of the two passages selected for my reading/study above by YouVersion.com.} 39 Then, accompanied by the disciples, Jesus left the upstairs room and went as usual to the Mount of Olives. 40 There he told them, “Pray that you will not be overcome by temptation.” 41 He walked away, about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, 42 “Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will, not mine.” 43 Then an angel from heaven appeared and strengthened him. 44 He prayed more fervently, and he was in such agony of spirit that his sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood. 45 At last he stood up again and returned to the disciples, only to find them asleep, exhausted from grief. 46 “Why are you sleeping?” he asked. “Get up and pray. Otherwise temptation will overpower you.”

My Journal for Today: If you’re reading along with me here, let me ask you. “Do you have any passages in Scripture which you don’t like to revisit because they are, as the Brits would say, ‘Bloody Painful!’ ?” Well, this passage, synoptically repeated by three of the of the Gospel writers, and copied above for your review, is just hurtful to my sensibilities when I meditate on its implications. And the part of this parallel passage which always gets me, is the part where Jesus gets on Peter for sleeping after He, the one Peter believed was his Messiah, had asked Peter and the others to “watch and pray.”

Though Luke doesn’t mention it, both Matthew and Mark point out that Jesus called out Peter for sleeping at the wheel, even though all three disciples had been asked to pray and were sleeping. Well, commentators point out that Jesus knew what Peter was going to being going through in just several hours hence; and so it is thought that the Lord was trying to prepare Peter for his ultimate failure in the face of temptation. I always empathize and identify with Peter because of his impulsiveness and knee-jerk faith; and here is another one of those moments where Peter (and we) are asked to look intensely into God’s mirror of truth.

Jesus had commanded (not asked) His inner core disciples, as the Lord needed some prayer time in the Garden of Gethsemane, to “watch and pray,” i.e., to sit outside the garden and be in prayer for and with Jesus as the Lord went into the garden to suffer and pray to His heavenly Father. And when I read those words of Jesus, “Sit here while I go and pray…;” I think about my own puny prayer life, … often where I’ll fall asleep while I’m praying in bed at night.

I think about an exhortation from another later disciple, Paul, as he wrote in Philippians 4: 6-7 for believers to pray rather than fret; and I’m one who so often fails to be vigilant in my life when I feel the pressures of temptation, and I fail to pray as God wants me to. Jesus is so, so right on when He says to Peter [in Mark’s version], “Keep alert and pray. Otherwise temptation will overpower you. For though the spirit is willing enough, the body is weak.” And I can be so recalcitrant in my faith, knowing Jesus’ loving intent for all disciples, not just for Peter. He want us to use the power He gives us through prayer to deal with life; and I so often fall asleep in my lack of vigilance to pray.

God doesn’t give any commands or exhortations except in love and enabling grace … and a desire that we, who follow Him, have what we need to live out this life and prepare for the next. And so, once again, as I think of Jesus’ teaching in these passages today, I stand rebuked and reinstructed with His charge to Peter; and I stop now to do just what Jesus spoke to Peter about … to … WATCH AND PRAY!

My Prayer Today: … Lord, thank You for helping me to know and use Your power in my prayer. Amen