Pray with vigilance.

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

Matthew 26:41

In the grip of the most personal struggle, Jesus prayed in Gethsemane. His soul He describes as “very sorrowful, even to death” (Matthew 26:38). His prayer - a request wishing there was some other way to avoid drinking the cup of wrath to be poured out on Him at His crucifixion, but yielding fully in obedience nonetheless to the Father’s will. After wrestling with this prayer, Jesus finds His disciples fast asleep.

Disappointed that they could not even keep watch with Him for an hour, Jesus gives them these words about the urgency of prayer. His teaching reminds us that in some ways prayer is always a spiritual battle not to be taken lightly! When we pray, we are to watch. There is a vigilance to prayer as we pray. There are no lazy prayers. And we can’t be haphazard about how we pray either.

The consequences of a lack of vigilance are severe: We can not only struggle in temptation, but we can succumb to it. So we must watch and pray so that we don’t enter into temptation. Mindful prayer protects our souls. It circumvents the devil’s schemes. It helps us mature in holiness. Jesus asks us to watch as we pray. Be alert! This is serious business!

The tendency to be less than vigilant is real. Jesus acknowledged this to His men. “The spirit is willing…” we want to pray well. We know we should be watchful as we prayer. We can believe all the things rightly about prayer. “But the flesh is weak…” we are just dust and easily fall away. We can easily be lulled by our earthly desires, our tired bodies, our physical needs. Those must be put in place for us to pray well, and only a fool thinks that prayer is never a battle between the spiritual realm and our weak bodies.

And so, we watch… with effort, energy, and enthusiasm, as we pray. We know a hundred urges may distract us from prayer at any given time, and so we discipline ourselves, as Christ reminds us, to pray with vigilance.