Watch and Pray

Have you ever feel asleep in the middle of the movie only to wake up and find you have missed the best part?  Life can be that way.  So can faith.  We all need sleep.  It is important and God has made our bodies so that they require rest.  But the challenge comes to each of us as Holy Week begins only a few days from now will that we miss a very special moment in faith if we just focus on the physical.  Peter and the disciples had the opportunity of a lifetime to spend those precious moments in prayer with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.  They could pray with Jesus and they could pray for Jesus when he would have most cherished their prayers.  “Could you not keep watch with me one hour?” Jesus asked them.  As holy week is about to begin ask yourself that question: Could we not keep watch with Christ one hour?  It might be the most important hour as we hear the prayer of Jesus, or pray for one of our fellow disciples who are struggling.  Know that come sleep or prayer, God still loves you even as he did Peter and the other disciples.  Take the challenge: join in the special moments of worship, and prayer, and other Holy Week events and allow God’s Spirit to quicken you in a very special way. 
 
(verse of the week) 
Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping.  “Could you not keep watch with me for one hour?” He asked Peter.  “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.  The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”  (Matthew 26.40, 41)
 
(prayer of the week)
Lord, help me to watch and pray that I may understand more fully the depth of your love, experience more fully the sacrifice you made, and love more deeply as you have loved me so graciously, through your power and to your glory, amen.
 
Open your heart to God’s awesome love!—Pastor TJ
 
(quote of the week)
God had one son on earth without sin, but never one without suffering—St. Augustine