05/03/2023
On one of our Aglow trips to Israel, I remember sitting quietly in the Garden of Gethsemane. My thoughts were going back to the time Jesus went there to pray, knowing what was ahead of Him….death on the cross.
In Mt. 26:36 Jesus urged the disciples to “sit here while I go and pray over there.” He had begun to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. He even said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful even to death.”
The next short portion is so touching to me. He was reaching out to His friends. He knew what was to come. He wanted those He had come to love to be there with Him. He probably wanted, even needed the comfort of their being by His side as He was entering into such a deep distress. He said, “Stay here and watch with Me.” How poignant. It touches my heart.
As He began the agony of His soul, falling on His face, praying, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; Nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”
When He came to the disciples and found them sleeping He said, “Could you not watch with Me one hour?” “Watch and pray lest you enter into temptation, The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Then the second time He went away and prayed, but He came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy.
So, He left them and prayed. He came back a third time saying, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going. My betrayer is at hand.”
We are living in another time, another hour…but I hear the same words of the Lord. "Won’t you stay and pray with me?” Our spirit is willing, but our flesh is weak.
It is a time when we need to stay with Him. We need to watch and pray with Him. I believe He sees what is going on in the earth and He is asking us, yes pleading with us stay with Him and pray.
It is the hour. It is the time. We will stay with Him and pray.