Watch and Pray

Matthew 26:41 “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”.

The Believer’s life is not always a beautiful path lined with roses. The Bible describes a believer's life as spiritual warfare (Ephesians 6:12); however, God has given us a valuable weapon: prayer. Years ago, my family was out camping. It happened to be a Wednesday which we normally would be at our church’s weekly prayer meeting. Nevertheless, nothing would stop us from having a family prayer meeting out in the woods, so we thought. Dad gave his typical devotion just as the sun went down. As the sky quickly turned dark, it was time for the usual prayer time to begin, from the youngest to the oldest praying out loud together. However, some unwanted visitors showed up! Raccoons started popping out of the woods from every direction. I might exaggerate a little but the noise of them looming towards our campsite was extremely distracting. While one of us prayed, another kept watch for approaching coons. Thus, we declared it our “watch and prayer” prayer meeting. Each one of us said a little prayer as someone else had to stand guard against the unwelcome guest to keep the raccoons away. Someone was necessary to watch because as soon as one intruder got chased away, another came bounding towards us!

Jesus commanded His disciples to Watch and pray during one of His darkest days. Right before the Chief Priest and the religious people came and arrested Jesus, the Bible describes Jesus as being “sorrowful and deeply distressed”. Jesus commanded His disciples to “Stay here and watch with Me” (Matthew 26:37-38). However, His friends were found sleeping on the job and would later all betray Him. Sadly, all the disciples failed Jesus during the darkest hours of His lifetime. May we seek to follow Jesus even when we are alone and it all looks hopeless. It is vital for Christians to be watching and praying during their darkest of days because we are more vulnerable to give into temptations.

Jesus said in Matthew 26:41, “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” In the Christian life, we must also be watching and praying. We must be always on guard against the fiery darts of the Devil (Ephesians 6:16; 1 Peter 5:8). 1 Corinthians 16:13 commands us to “Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong.” However, we cannot fight the good fight of faith on our own we must go to God in prayer for the help and strength we need to live a victorious life. “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16).