Devotions - Read Online

Thursday | 15 November 2018

Watching and praying

Essential to our daily and continual participation in the offering of Christ is our obedience to His call to watch and pray with Him in Gethsemane. Jesus said to His disciples, ‘Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.’ Mat 26:41. Jesus was not merely saying that we need to stay awake. He was saying that we need to watch how we pray and how we journey with Him in the fellowship of His offering.

In this regard, we are to look and see whether we are praying and offering in the flesh or in the Spirit; that is, whether it is from the basis of the other law or according to our name as a son of God. As we have already considered, we can only know this in the fellowship of Christ’s offering. In this fellowship, we can learn from Christ how to pray, and how to minister in holiness as a son-priest. Mat 11:29.

The communion meal grants us a participation in the offering of the Lamb of God. The call to watch and pray with Jesus is the invitation to watch, and to remain connected to, the pathway of priesthood that He pioneered for us through His offering as the Lamb of God. Our fellowship in this offering is to be our daily reality. This means that, in the midst of the events of each day, we are walking by the Spirit, who is the expression of our sonship. We are not being driven by fear and anxiety.

‘Watching’ also means that we are mindful of what is coming into our houses. In this regard, heads of households should be watching what comes into their houses, including media content, alternative philosophies, fears, and so on. If fathers are not watching in this way in relation to their own house, they will certainly be unable to see what is coming into the church.