Watch and Pray

We of course encourage people to pray. Newcomers to the faith and established Christians. But do we explain how persisting in prayer can be shear hard work? Do we spell out the loneliness, the possibility of abandonment, or the potential feeling of the concrete ceiling?

"Could you not watch with me for one hour?", Jesus asked the disciples he had called to pray with him in the Garden of Gethsemane. Three times he went a little farther to pray, and three times he came back to find the companions sleeping.

In this garden sequence (e.g. Matthew 26) we should first learn from Jesus' prayer resolve: he knew that his toughest times were just ahead, and that this was the (gruesome) task both agreed with and required by his heavenly Father. With all these thoughts and emotions flooding his human system Jesus still deliberately & purposefully chose to seek his Father and spend time with Him. No sulking, no denial, but continuing in relationship!

But in entering this zone of prayer Jesus wanted to take people with him, to have companions in prayer. Sadly this wish was not fulfilled. The disciples came with him but didn't have the capacity to see it through - they fell asleep. How lonely did Jesus feel as the minutes mounted and the realisation that he was on his own sunk in? How abandoned did he feel when he looked back to discover that the disciples were asleep again.

Praying - going deep with the Father - can be a lonely enterprise. Don't assume that everyone will go or stay with you into the process. Yet persist anyway - seek the Father, forget the additional personnel count.

His prayer naturally looked for different answers. Was there another way? Could this be sorted via a different route. That is only human, something we all do. Our anxiety triggers a thousand internal queries 'what if this, or what about that?', some of which we express in prayer. Yet as Jesus turns these to prayer maybe he was met with those classic feelings of 'is anyone listening - am I really getting through here?'. I say 'classic' because it is such a common experience for us. How many times have we felt disconnected, as if there is a concrete ceiling separating us and God?

Yet Jesus persisted, and regardless of hearing/sensing/feeling any answer he handed it back to the Father with the 'but your will be done'. His anxieties were real and valid in his humanity, but he would hold his own humanity in its proper place in relation to God.

Praying is not always easy. In fact often it is plain hard. But keep perspective - God is God and we are not. Persist in prayer even if your humanity tries to tell you otherwise.

Jesus finishes ready for action 'Let us rise ... they are almost here'. He kind of sounds encouraged! The disciples duly respond and rise to meet the foe with him. From the very real loneliness & abandonment in prayer he emerges into the next episode both joined by his friends and with a Godly resolve to forge ahead.

That is where prayer leads. Not necessarily into an easy episode, but with resources and strength around you to do what needs to be done. Remember that the journey through prayer may be lonely and tough, but God is listening and responding. Time spent with Him sets things up for the way ahead.

Following the Spirit

Jesus told Nicodemus 'The wind blows wherever it pleases - you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit'.

The Spirit blows freely. It doesn't follow our set patterns, pre-conceived ideas or agendas. As such it can seem to us that it flits from one place to another. We talk of keeping in step with the Spirit ... but for us to truly do that will surely require us to walk in a way that qualifies for the ministry of funny walks!

Today I was out walking and had the pleasure of following a butterfly along the trail. It kept flitting from one place to the next, stopping and then moving on, settling and then off again. Since I was in prayer anyway, I resolved to track its movements, letting it be a guide for my own movement: when it flew forward I would walk forward, when it settled I would slow, stop and pray.

Eventually it settled on the path just ahead, so I stopped, knelt, and prayed right there. Some while later it took off, and so I set off once again.

Are we prepared to do similar in ministry? Sensing when the Spirit is going forward, to the left or right, and be sensitive to when it has settled on some place or some one? Will we stop and pray right there at the settling point for as long  as the Spirit is settled? Or do we march forward no matter ...