Watch and Pray

Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and He told His disciples, " Sit here while I go over there and pray." Taking along Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. Then He said to them, My soul is swallowed up in sorrow-to the point of death. Remain here and stay awake with Me." Going a little farther, He fell face down and prayed, " My Father! If it is possible, let this cup pass from Me. Yet not as I will, but as You will." Matthew 26:36-38

We need to look at two things here: Jesus' prayer to be released from the cross and His request of the disciples to watch and pray with Him.

There will be 'cups' that come our way, they will be huge and not at all what we want to face. It may be a loss of a loved one, a fact that we are about to die, horribly, or we are facing ruin. As we face our future we can have comfort in knowing that Jesus also staggered at His future but went on to pray: ' not My will, but Your's be done.'

10 years ago my marriage fell apart and I went to The Lord and asked Him: what is happening? His answer surprised me. He said, 'I never intended what has happened to you to happen and now I am going to strip the tree of all that was on it and begin again.' I knew that did not sound exciting and that pain would be involved. I had hoped He was referring to my husband but He was talking about me.

10 years on I can say the process was very painful and at times I despaired but hung on to God. Now I can say I am a totally different creature than I was 10 years ago. Now I am what He intended, complete and whole.

The second scenario above was Jesus had asked for His disciples to watch and pray with Him. They fell asleep. When I went through the last 10 years there have been few who prayed but I am grateful to those who did, thank you! Loneliness in grief and pain are huge and Jesus was all alone.

If the Son of God needed prayer support how much more do those in our world? How much more should we be available? Watchmen are required! Are you ready and willing or asleep? There will come a time when you need prayer support and you will want it, have you sown it?


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