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Prayer and Fasting and Prayer and ...

HAVE YOU EVER FASTED?
I mean as a part of your spiritual disciplines ... perhaps for Lent?
Did fasting pay off?
Read Matthew 26:36-46 then reread verse 41.
Let’s get the context by reviewing a little bit: Matthew prepares us for the seven-day feast of Unleavened Bread starting and ending on a Sabbath (v17) which ends with Passover > Jesus spends Passover with the disciples > Judas leaves to betray Jesus > He institutes the Lord’s Supper (akin to the removal of leaven was the forgiveness of sins) > Jesus predicts Peter’s denial > Peter (and the others) denies he will deny > and Jesus arrives at the garden in Gethsemane.
< INSERT GETHSEMANE PRAYER TIME >
> Jesus is betrayed by Judas > swords are swung > an ear is healed > Jesus is arrested > the disciples flee the scene > Scriptures are fulfilled as Jesus goes to Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin > Peter denies Jesus in the courtyard > the rooster crows.
Again, in between these events, Jesus is praying.
Why do you think Jesus chose to go to Gethsemane that night?
Why did Jesus choose to take with him Peter, James and John a little further in?
What significance does verse 38 have?
Jesus tells his disciples, "Watch with me." Watch WHAT?
Have you ever fell on your face and prayed?
Jesus words in that moment: “Father … [his address] If it be possible [his question] Let this cup pass from me (2nd time he prays “if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” ) [his request], Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will [his concession and deepest desire/resolve]."
The disciples were praying too, right? Nope, they were sleeping. Jesus speaks, “Kepha! Could you all not WATCH with me an hour?”
And not just once ... but 3x they are asleep.

"Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 

Three times Jesus prays.
How was “watching” and “praying” to help them not enter into temptation?
How IS the spirit willing? How IS the flesh weak? We know this too well.
Again, how is watching and praying to help with the spirit and flesh thing?
Someone has said Jesus prepared his disciples at the meal, he now prepares himself in the garden.
The disciples didn’t watch and pray, and they flee and deny Jesus. Was this the temptation Jesus had forseen?
The disciples’ best intentions in the garden did not help them stay awake and pray.
  • Jesus knows better than we do what we are made of.
  • Only devotion to prayer can carry us through the hardest times.
  • No matter what the pain, we must obey the mission God has given us.
  • Would praying help you resist temptation? Would praying help you remain faithful to God in trials? Of course!
  • How would fasting help you pray, strengthen your spirit’s will, and make faithfulness a reality?

Watch and pray with others!

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