Watching and Praying

Matthew 26:40-41, “Then He came to the disciples and found them asleep, and said to Peter, ‘What, could you not watch with Me one hour? Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.’”

Some have said knowledge is the burden of the soul. They stipulate, and passionately so, that knowledge is a curse, therefore no knowledge of what the future holds for us as God’s creation was given because God’s love for mankind would not allow Him to encumber us so.

The more prophetic pieces fall into place and the more the end times puzzle takes shape, the more vociferous those who revel in their ignorance become as to how it is unthinkable and in their minds impossible for us to know what the future holds.

Not only are such individuals ignorant, they glory in their ignorance because they believe their ignorance will exempt them from the responsibilities which come with the aforementioned knowledge.

Men have always gone to great lengths to skirt accountability, and to this day they continue to do so, even going so far as denying what they see with their own eyes.

It’s not as though the disciples didn’t know the struggle Christ was facing at the time. It’s not as though He did not tell them that His soul was exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death, or ask them explicitly to watch with Him.

Christ had done this. He had explained the circumstances to His disciples, had asked them to watch with Him, and yet, when He returned he found them asleep.

We have also been told by Christ, and explicitly so, what to expect during these last days, and what the landscape will look like. When He returns will He likewise find us asleep?

The struggle, the burden, the hardship isn’t the knowing, it is not knowledge itself, but battling against the weakness of the flesh and remaining in a state of watchfulness and prayerfulness until the Christ returns.

We know it won’t be long. We know His return is closer today than it was yesterday, and it will be closer tomorrow than it was today. When He returns He expects to find us awake, watchful, and prayerful, because it is what He asked of us, and it is in obedience that we receive our reward.

Watching and praying are not optional. We cannot choose, based on how busy we are, or how hectic our schedule, whether we will be watchful and prayerful on a given day, or during a given time period.

As children of God, as those redeemed, saved, and sanctified, we must understand the importance of being watchful and prayerful, and understand that slumber and the weakness of the flesh are not the only enemies we must contend with, but so are distractions and misplaced loyalties.

If the enemy can’t cause us to slumber, if the flesh cannot cause us to enter into temptation, the devil will settle for keeping us distracted, and keeping us from praying and being watchful for those things we ought to be watchful for.

Another tool the enemy has in his arsenal is to make us passionate and loyal toward something other than Christ Jesus our Lord and King. It matters not what that thing is, whether a state, a nation, a denomination or an individual, if our loyalties can be shifted from Jesus toward something else, the enemy has won the battle, and if the situation is not remedied and we do not shift our loyalty back to Christ, he will eventually win the war.

This is one of the reasons the enemy has had such an easy time running roughshod over the household of faith. Our loyalties were misplaced, and rather than stand for the truth of Christ, we chose to defend our political party, our interests, or other things not pertaining to Jesus.

It matters not what it is you are doing. If you are not watching and praying, then you are not doing what you ought to be doing, and when the Christ returns, He will rebuke you just as He rebuked Peter and the rest of the disciples.

We can justify our absence of prayerfulness and watchfulness to ourselves, we can tell ourselves what we are doing is more important, more necessary, more impacting on the surrounding community, or even the nation, but if our own house isn’t in order, if our own armor isn’t on, if our own foundation isn’t stable, do we really have any business trying to tidy up our neighbor’s home?

A wise man knows to put first things first and watching and praying must be at the top of the list of what each of us ought to be doing today.

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.