Final thoughts on Mark 14:38
Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” NKJV
Brothers and sisters in Christ, never go out into the danger of the world without praying first. There are always temptations to skip our daily prayers. After a difficult day at work, when we enter into our bedrooms in the evening, let us not use our fatigue or drowsiness as an excuse to skip our time with the Lord before we go to sleep. Then when morning comes and we realize that we have overslept, let us resist the temptation to skip our early devotional time or to rush through it.
Once again, we have not taken the time to “watch and pray.” Our alertness has been sacrificed and there will be spiritual damage. We have failed to pray, and we will suffer as a result. Temptations are waiting to confront us, and we are not prepared to withstand them. Within our souls we have a sense of guilt, and we are not as close to the Lord as we should be. It is no coincidence that we tend to fall short of our responsibilities on those days when we have allowed our weariness to interfere with our prayer life.
When we give into laziness, moments of prayer that are missed can never be redeemed. We may learn from the experience, but we will miss the rich freshness and strength that would have been imparted during those moments. Frederick William Robertson
Jesus, who is the omnipotent God Himself in human flesh, deemed it necessary to rise each morning to pour out His heart to His Heavenly Father in prayer. Should we then not feel even more compelled to pray our Heavenly Father who is the giver of “every good gift and every perfect gift” (James 1:17) and who has promised to provide whatever we need (Phil. 4:19)?
We do not know all that Jesus gained from His time in prayer, but we do know this—a life without prayer is a powerless life. It may be filled with a great deal of activity and noise, but it will be far removed from Him who day and night prayed to God. L. B. Cowman
Bethel Bible Church Hawaii 