February 26th 2016
Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled.
Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Could you men 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.”
He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”
When he came back, he again found them sleeping because their eyes were heavy. So, he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.
– Matthew 26: 36-37, 40-44 (NIV)
Sit, Watch and Pray
When I volunteered to write for this booklet, an idea immediately popped into my mind. Sure that I could work my thought into a devotional, I did not give it much more thought. Then the deadline loomed, and still I procrastinated, certain that I knew what I wanted to write about. Then I got my letter from the committee advising me that my devotional was soon due. Uh-Oh! The deadline! My thoughts would not gel; I could not put my thoughts into words. I prayed several days for guidance and still had nothing. Then, while I was in the shower offering an intercessory prayer for someone (I pray in some very unusual places), I found my mind wandering. There is a joke floating around and it goes something like this: A.D.D – not me. Oh, look, there goes a bunny! Something about the person I was praying for took me off on a tangent, but then, God brought me back with an awareness that I was not being very attentive to Him! This brought to mind the times that I was praying after going to bed and woke up later realizing that my prayer time was interrupted once again. This gentle God reminder brought me right back to the Bible verse that I planned to use originally for my devotional but in a very different way. Yes, God answers prayer, and, yes, I will try harder to focus on the power of it, and, yes, I know I will be forgiven because even the disciples could not keep themselves alert or awake when Jesus asked them to pray with him in the Garden of Gethsemane.
– Ginger Garner