Watch and Pray

Matthew 26:41 (New King James Version)


41 Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”


So many times when we try to have an intimate relationship with the Lord we are distracted. Rather it be because our work lives or our home lives, we become distracted and end up farther away from God then when we first started. We allow so many things to come between us and God even though in our hearts we truly want to be closer to Him.

I myself struggle with this very thing almost everyday. Though I want to do have a strong and healthy relationship with God, I always seem to allow something else get in the way. I have thought about this long and hard for the last couple of days and asked God way am I this way. Because I sometimes I feel that I will never have the sort of relationship with God that I’m seeking. He in turned led me to this scripture, Matthew 26:41, which you can read above.

In this scriptures we find Jesus in what was called Gethsemane where he was preparing himself for the task in which He had came for. This was to die for our sins. In this passage Jesus is very distraught and deeply distress because he knew the task that laid before him. He took with him three of his disciplines Peter, James, and John. He had them watch with him while he pray. Now the way that I understand it is that this meant to wait with him not to actually be lookouts for him. I say this for the watch that Jesus is talking about means waiting for something to come into fruition, like when we have the watch party at church New Years Eve, we are waiting for the New Year to come.

Now Jesus asked the three disciples to watch with him and while he went to pray, however when he returned an hour later he found them sleeping. He woke them up and asked them why they could not watch with him for one hour before they went to sleep. Then he said to them, “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit is indeed willing but the flesh is weak.”

My Friends I believe that the Lord is saying those very thing to us today. For many of us are exactly like the three disciples. If you study this text, and I encourage you to do so, then you will see that even though Jesus asked the disciples to watch with him they instead fell asleep not once but two times. Now you could say that they were not omniscient like Jesus so they had no way of knowing what was about to happen. But the Bible tells us in verse 37 that Jesus was sorrowful and very heavy, so this alone should have made them want to him who they called their Rabbi, or great teacher. I believe that they truly wanted to be there to comfort Jesus but they were just to tired to do so.

I think that God is using this incident to show us I we are today as well. We want to walk with Jesus and have a fulfilling relationship with him but we are allowing our daily lives to get in the way. No we may not be sleeping like the disciples, but we are allowing other things to distracted us. We have to watch our favorite show on T.V., we are worrying about our work after we leave our jobs, we have to make sure that we make time for friends and family so that they will not become mad at us, and the list can go on and on. However will it comes to God we put him on the back burner because we know that he will wait Patiently for us.

My friends God has spoke to me and he said, WAKE UP!! For it is during these very times that I put Him on the back burner that I become even more susceptible to temptation which in turn causes more separation being God and I. Pushing me back in my growth as a Christian when my heart desires to move forward.

While He does not want you to avoid none of those things that I had listed above, we can not put them ahead of God. He must be number one in our life in order for us to be truly fulfilled. We have to Watch, looking forward and being prepared for the unseen, and pray constantly. For as Jesus said though our spirits are willing our flesh is weak.

Through watching, praying, and faith, I believe, are the only way that we can grow closer to God. This is something that I yearn for and I hope you desire the same thing. God Bless.

Pressing Towards the Goal

Philippians 3:12-16


12 Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. 13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. 16 Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind.





Pressing Towards the Goal



No matter who we are, we all live fast paced lives. In order to survive and function you have to be able to keep moving forward without looking back, for we know if we dwell on our mistakes that we made in the past we are going to get left behind. We learn from said mistake and keep on moving, this life is all about progression fighting to achieve whatever is our life’s goal.

I often wonder how many of us can live like this in the physical however we do not share the same view in our spiritual lives. When it comes to our walk with God we strive to reach an unattainable goal of perfection, only to be disappointed when we falter, thus slowing down our spiritual growth from toddler to adolescent onto adulthood. Sadly, because of this reason most of us never make it out of the infant stage.

When we place this burden upon our shoulders we open up and let sin regain its lost power. At the same time we feed Satan’s only power which is deception. He, Satan, makes us feel like we all not good enough to have a relationship with God because of our sins. This causes us to slow down or completely stop our walk with the Lord. We do this all because of a lie that Satan is feeding us with sin being his choice utensil. While sin does separate God and Man, Jesus is the Bridge that connects us once again. When He, Jesus, died for our sins He denounced the power that sin had over us. Now we don’t have to be perfect in order to be right in God’s sight, Jesus was perfect for us and He sacrificed Himself so that we might have life.

Now does this mean that we should just do what we pleased because of Jesus’ sacrifice? No, just like when we make a mistake in this live we need to learn from it and move forward using His, Jesus, strength. In this way we remove the power that sin has over us. Our spiritual walk is also about Progression.

So we must do like the writer of this scripture and press on towards the mark. Forgetting about the past and moving forward. Knowing that we are not perfect but we continue to strive each day towards the mark, which is the glory of our savior Christ Jesus. We can not settle. We must always be pressing towards the mark. God Bless.

The Cost Of Discipleship

MATTHEW 8

The Cost of Discipleship

18 And when Jesus saw great multitudes about Him, He gave a command to depart to the other side. 19 Then a certain scribe came and said to Him, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.” 20 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” 21 Then another of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 22 But Jesus said to him, “Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”



Matthew 19

16 Now behold, one came and said to Him, “Good[e] Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?” 17 So He said to him, “Why do you call Me good?[f] No one is good but One, that is, God.[g] But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.” 18 He said to Him, “Which ones?” Jesus said, “ ‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not bear false witness,’ 19 ‘Honor your father and your mother,’[h] and, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”[i]20 The young man said to Him, “All these things I have kept from my youth.[j] What do I still lack?” 21 Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” 22 But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

With God All Things Are Possible

23 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “Assuredly, I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” 25 When His disciples heard it, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?” 26 But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Matthew 17:14-21

14 And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to Him, kneeling down to Him and saying, 15 “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. 16 So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him.”


17 Then Jesus answered and said, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me.” 18 And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour.

19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?”

20 So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. 21 However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”
 
 
Faith as small as a mustard seed.


Tonight while study the Word, my wife and I found ourselves reading this scripture. This is funny because we originally began our study by reading James 2:14, which talks about Faith without work being dead. However, God had different plans for us.



After briefly discussing our original scripture my wife told me to look up Faith as small as a mustard seed. At first I was a little perturbed because it was my night to pick the scripture and I thought that I had picked a good one to read. Still, I calmed down and put the words in our bible search engine and it pulled up the above scripture.



Now I had read this scripture many times before but I had never truly studied it. I, like most of us, only referred to this scripture during trying times. I used it mostly to stay afloat by telling myself, “If I only have faith of a mustard seed, I can move this mountain out of my way.” However, in studying the scripture I found a much deeper meaning to Jesus’ words.



If we can move past the moving of the mountains part for a second and focus on what Jesus said after those words. His words were if you have faith as small as a mustard seed Nothing will be impossible for you. Now this is something to be joyous about because our Savior said that with minimal faith nothing is impossible. But before we get ahead of ourselves we must look at the twenty-first verse which says, however this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.

Now I find this verse powerful in many different ways. First it tells us that even for us to achieve faith as small as a mustard seed we must pray and fast. Some of us believed that we are born with this faith because our parents or grandparents possessed this kind of faith. But the Word of God says no, to have the smallest amount of faith we must pray and fast.

Secondly, I looked at this verse for what could be. If such power could come out of faith as small as a mustard seed and all I have to do is pray and fast, what will happen if I begin to pray and fast wholeheartedly? Then I could rid myself of my anger problem, I could conquer any addiction that I have, I could live my life in peace even through the storm, and most of all I can have a stronger and better relationship with God through Christ Jesus. All because my Faith has grown and multiplied from it’s mustard seed beginning.

This is what I believed that Jesus is trying to tell us through this scripture. With a minimal amount of faith you can do anything, but even this faith is not given, rather it is achieved through prayer and fasting. The more that you immerse yourself into these two things the more your faith and your relationship with Him will grow.



After I realized this I felt foolish for thinking that my wife was trying to cut in on my scripture. Adding this scripture to our studies did not do anything but enhance our spiritual intake for the night. Not only did we learn that Faith without work is dead, but we also learned how to build up our faith. I am so glad that I did not miss out on my blessing by being upset at my wife. I would have been mad in vain because, like she is all of the time, she was right and I was wrong! God Bless!