Day 281, or October the 8th. Always be on your
guard. Our thoughts today come from Matthew chapter
26, verse 41. Watch and pray, so that you will
not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing,
but the flesh is weak. And now the big picture surrounding
this verse. We are quickly approaching the end
of Jesus' earthly ministry and he will never
leave the south and visit Galilee again until
he is raised from the dead. Jesus celebrates
his last Passover meal with his disciples in
the upper room, and is betrayed by one of the
twelve, Judas Iscariot. After Judas leaves the
upper room, the rest of them leave, singing,
for their last visit to the Mount of Olives,
where Jesus is captured in the Garden of Gethsemane
and taken away to be tried. He sees his prophecy
of Peter's denial fulfilled in the courtyard
of Caiaphas' residence. There the chief priest
and the whole Sanhedrin meet to form the highest
court in Judaism, in order to convict the man
who they are convinced is a fraud, but in reality
is the Messiah they have all been waiting for
over the centuries. How ironic! And now today's
action step. It's interesting that our Lord,
who taught his disciples to pray, and is the
source of our inspiration when we pray, seems
to demote prayer to second place when he speaks
to his disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane,
shortly before his arrest and trials. He says
that they, and of course it must go for us too,
are to watch and pray. For years I taught in
Sunday school and often asked the kids what they
should do when they're in trouble. They always
said pray. I'm not sure they meant it, but they
knew it was the right answer and it was the one
I was expecting. Our verse today challenges this
assumption. Jesus told the disciples to keep
watch and then pray. In other words, do all you
can to steer clear of temptation and then bathe
it all in prayer. Too often we think prayer will
immunize us from temptation, but it doesn't.
We are to do our part, watch, and God will do
his part as we pray.