POP 401 - Watch & Pray

In this weeks short episode Tony reflects on a very interesting scripture found in the Gospel of Matthew.

Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane.

He's very sad and he's struggling because he knows what's about to happen.

He leaves most of the disciples at a particular place in garden, and then takes Peter, James, and John with him a little further into the garden.

As the following scene then unfolds, he asks these three disciples, three different times, to "watch" and to "pray" so they would not fall into temptation.

Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.  The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Matthew 26:41

It's of significane to notice that Jesus connects two important spiritual disciplines here directly to the problem of temptation: to watch and pray.

Or said another way, because of the temptations that are lurking around us, that can and will entice us, we must "watch and pray", and it's these spritual disciplines that can then empower us to resist these temptations.

The word "watch" that Jesus uses here is defined as:

to give strict attention to, be cautious, active, to take heed lest through remission and indolence some destructive calamity suddenly overtake you.

Through the words of Jesus a powerful Kingdom formula therefore emerges:

If we "watch and pray" we'lll be better equipped to resist temptation!