Wednesday, March 8, 2006
Mark 14:38 "Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."
STAYING UP WITH JESUS
The bravado, which is not faith, further shows itself among the disciples in that during the critical hour they slept.
In all fairness and understanding, the disciples had been awake since Thursday morning and this now was just after midnight Friday. They had also just eaten a large Passover meal and had listened to Jesus words before, during, and after that meal. It had been a long and surely and emotional day.
Yet we cannot think that the devil has so much compassion on us that he does not attempt to lie and deceive when we are tired. It is usually then that he presses home his temptations, when we are weakest. All the more reason then to remain awake to watch and pray that we fall not.
While we speak of the physical, it is the spiritual of which Jesus is speaking of when He encourages us to watch and pray. It is far to easy for us member and pastor alike to fall asleep spiritually. We grow lax in our work, we grow sleepy in our study. "Members don't come. They don't listen." "Pastor's sermons are too long. They are not interesting enough. They do not apply to me." Becoming weary is not the fault of the members or the pastor, it is the individual's own failure to watch and pray, to fall asleep spiritually.
The devil does not take a holiday, nor rest, nor sleep, and his attacks are on the soul. "Rise my soul to watch and pray." Faith is not boastful, it is humble and prays. It is awake and alert. Stay up and watch and pray with Jesus.
