“Watch and pray, that you enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak (Matthew 16:41).” Jesus said it. To whom? To Peter, James, and John. It was a full evening. Jesus and his disciples had shared the Passover meal. Afterward, Jesus and the disciples went to the Mount of Olives because Jesus wanted to pray. Of the disciples, he asked the three named above to go further with him to the garden of Gethsemane (verse 37). In verse 38 Jesus asks them to watch with him.
Watch. Twice he says Watch (verse 38, 40). Then he says Watch and Pray. He took all the disciples with him but selected the three he thought would Watch. Aren’t we all supposed to be watchful as followers of Christ? Isaiah 62:6-7, “I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem…and give no rest till Jerusalem is a praise in the earth.” A message to be watchful. The devil would like nothing better than to break up the Church.
Stand as watchmen for your life, family, church, and nation. Paul said it all in Ephesians 6:12, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Our nation needs watchmen, the watchmen God set in place. The Church is the watchmen.
The disciples were caught sleeping. We need to be alert to who and what comes into our lives, our family, our church, and our nation. Also, be spiritually alert to what is coming into our lives, our family, our church, our nation. If it isn’t of God, say “no” it can’t come in here. Otherwise, the risk of being bombarded by evil and ungodly ideas, unhealthy relationships and perplexing calamities will take root.
Pray. Not just individual prayers, group prayers, entire congregations praying in unison. Unrelenting prayer to uproot evil where it is. “Lest Satan should get an advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices (II Corinthians 2:11).”
Watch and Pray.
Watch. Twice he says Watch (verse 38, 40). Then he says Watch and Pray. He took all the disciples with him but selected the three he thought would Watch. Aren’t we all supposed to be watchful as followers of Christ? Isaiah 62:6-7, “I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem…and give no rest till Jerusalem is a praise in the earth.” A message to be watchful. The devil would like nothing better than to break up the Church.
Stand as watchmen for your life, family, church, and nation. Paul said it all in Ephesians 6:12, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Our nation needs watchmen, the watchmen God set in place. The Church is the watchmen.
The disciples were caught sleeping. We need to be alert to who and what comes into our lives, our family, our church, and our nation. Also, be spiritually alert to what is coming into our lives, our family, our church, our nation. If it isn’t of God, say “no” it can’t come in here. Otherwise, the risk of being bombarded by evil and ungodly ideas, unhealthy relationships and perplexing calamities will take root.
Pray. Not just individual prayers, group prayers, entire congregations praying in unison. Unrelenting prayer to uproot evil where it is. “Lest Satan should get an advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices (II Corinthians 2:11).”
Watch and Pray.
