Watch And Pray

Guest Post by Joy Gruits

His Word:  Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.   Galatians 6:2 NIV

Observation and Obedience:  Their last supper together had been eaten.  Jesus had washed their feet.  The hours leading to his crucifixion were quickly passing.  The realization of what lay ahead overwhelmed him, so he withdrew to his place of prayer – the Garden of Gethsemane.  As Jesus reached the Garden, he turned to his disciples and said to them, My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me. (Matthew 26:38 NIV)

Just as Satan had tempted Adam and Eve “in the beginning,” Satan had tempted Jesus at the beginning of his ministry.  But this temptation was greater.  This temptation filled Jesus with such anguish that he sweat drops of blood – the temptation to avoid the Cross.  So Jesus went to Gethsemane to pray.  He needed strength to endure the Cross.  He needed the strength to say “Father, not my will but Your will.”  

In this most agonizing moment, Jesus asked his disciples James, John and Peter to “keep watch.”  Jesus asked them to keep alert and to pray.  But while Jesus was wrestling in prayer, the disciples fell asleep. When he (Jesus) rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow.  (Luke 22:45 NIV)

Earlier that evening Jesus told the disciples how he would be taken from them, that their whirlwind adventure of ministry with Jesus was coming to end.  Jesus was leaving them, and they were exhausted with grief.  But because they allowed their sorrow to consume them, because they focused on how their lives would be affected, they failed to keep watch for Jesus.  They failed to be alert to his greater anguish.  They failed to minister to him with their prayers.  What a heartbreak for Jesus to see his disciples asleep in his hour of need.  

Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour? The disciples missed an opportunity to support Jesus at this critical moment in his life.  They failed to “watch and pray.” Yet, I cannot fault the disciples.  It is so easy to be exhausted by our own problems and concerns.

Deadlines to meet,

appointments to keep,

family issues to deal with, 

financial needs to contend with, 

even just the busyness of life can exhaust us, 

and so we fail to keep watch, to be alert to the anguish of others.  

As difficult as it is at times to take our eyes off of our own needs, the Lord wants us to be alert to the needs of others.  He wants us to intercede with prayer for them as fervently as we do for our own needs.  After all, the Apostle Paul exhorts us to: Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

And what is that law?  To love one another.  And, one important way we can show our love is to share the burdens of others with tears of intercession, with fervent and passionate prayer.  

Prayer: “Lord, let me demonstrate Your love in my life by being alert to the burdens of others.  Let me be moved with a compassion that inspires me to be as passionate in prayer for their needs as I am for my own.  Lord, as your disciple today, let me embrace wholeheartedly your Garden of Gethsemane request – to watch and pray. Amen.”

Encouragement: Our prayer must not be self-centered. It must arise not only because we feel our own need as a burden we must lay upon God, but also because we are so bound up in love for our fellow men that we feel their need as acutely as our own. To make intercession for men is the most powerful and practical way in which we can express our love for them.  John Calvin

Written by: Joy Gruits