Pray, lest you enter into temptation
Mark 14:37-38 Then He came and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “Simon, are you sleeping? Could you not watch one hour? 38 Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Christ was headed to his darkest hour. He had entered into the Garden of Gethsemane for some solitude in prayer. He needed to talk to His father, he spoke of how deeply his soul was troubled, even to the point of death. We cannot imagine the weight of sin that was beginning to bear down on him even in that garden. He took the three that were closest to him and left the others. Peter, James, and John were asked to intercede for Christ in prayer. He wanted to know those closest to him were praying for him; they failed him three times and fell asleep. Their is much depth in this story in the Bible, but at the surface, why do we sometimes struggle with prayer so much?
Have you ever realized that both physical and mental distractions always seem to come when you are headed into prayer? I struggle with the mental the most myself, what gets in my mind that seems to interrupt and deflect my thoughts. Always a tasks that seems to come to memory, always something that is troubling me, always anything to take my focus off the prayer. It can come in the middle of a prayer, to the point of loosing a train of thought. My study Bible puts it; “The dichotomy between spirit and flesh is real. Our fallen human nature even after conversion, wars against the work of God.” It is Satan and the power of sin in our lives that causes many of our struggles in prayer. The things of this world that take our eyes off the eternal things of God. The closer we get to God, the farther we remove ourselves from this world, the greater our prayer life will become.
Even when Christ taught us how to pray in what is known as the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13), he reminded us of that power of sin and temptation. Matthew 6:13 And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Pursue righteousness daily; strive to remove the known sin in your life; the closer you draw to God the stronger your prayer life will become. Your prayer life is not to impress anyone of your religiosity, it is simply to draw closer to God. It is not to bring God to where you are, it is to get you to where He is. The next time you struggle with prayer, just stop and sit silently, wait on the thought to pass. Don’t give into that temptation but pray for it to pass. Then enter into the presence of the Lord in joyful praise of what He has for you.
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