{"id":232,"date":"2014-03-24T10:54:39","date_gmt":"2014-03-24T10:54:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/parkwood.org\/blog\/?p=232"},"modified":"2015-03-03T18:45:59","modified_gmt":"2015-03-03T18:45:59","slug":"an-inconvenient-faith-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/an-inconvenient-faith-17\/","title":{"rendered":"An Inconvenient Faith (17)"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Then He said to them, ‘My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me’…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.’\u00a0 He went away a second time and prayed…When He came back, He again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy.\u00a0 So He left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.\u00a0 Then He returned to the disciples and said to them, ‘Are you still sleeping?…'” <\/em>(Matthew 26:38-45)<\/p>\n

After our sabbath pause we go back to the garden called Gethsemane to our troubled Savior.\u00a0 In today’s verses we are focusing on the disciples and, specifically, the Lord’s request of them.\u00a0 In their years of ministry together there is no other place where Jesus makes such an intimate request of His disciples.\u00a0 He opens up His heart to them and reveals His struggle and we can sense a longing for companionship from a man in an hour of deepest sorrow.\u00a0 So how could they fall asleep?<\/p>\n

Not even for “one hour”?\u00a0 It doesn’t seem like Jesus is asking much of these guys but they could not even do that.\u00a0 However, we are too quick to condemn these tired disciples and to forget the many times we have let the Lord down.\u00a0 Have you had times when you felt the Lord urging you to pray or speak a word of encouragement or give a little extra?\u00a0 But, because of a busy schedule or just being tired you did not follow through.\u00a0 Jesus lets the disciples know in these verses that the spirit is willing but the body is weak.\u00a0 They must have wanted to pray with Jesus but they could not overcome the needs of the body.<\/p>\n

If they had only known what was about to happen.\u00a0 If they had known that this would be their last moments with Jesus before His arrest…maybe they could have been successful.\u00a0 Peter would later write, “The end of all things is near.\u00a0 Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray.” (1 Peter 4:7).\u00a0 I think these disciples learned an important lesson about a sometimes “inconvenient faith”.<\/p>\n

We should also notice that Jesus is frustrated but He does not condemn them.\u00a0 He knows their weaknesses and understands their struggle.\u00a0 He is also tired.\u00a0 This was not their first time to let Jesus down and it would not be the last.\u00a0 This is also an important lesson to remember as we walk with Jesus…our failures are not fatal.<\/p>\n

During this lenten journey you may have already had moments when the distractions of your schedule or just exhaustion has interrupted your spiritual discipline.\u00a0 Let me encourage you to not focus on your weakness but on His strength.\u00a0 He understands…life can be challenging.\u00a0 The key is to get back on track, learn from it and keep your eyes on Him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Then He said to them, ‘My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me’…Then He returned to His disciples and found them sleeping. ‘Could you men not keep watch with me … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-an-inconvenient-faith-2014-lenten-blog","category-all_posts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":237,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232\/revisions\/237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}