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Failing to Pray is Planning to Fail

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“Failing to plan is planning to fail” is a familiar expression and loved by those of us who are planners! During the past few months, and especially during this Holy Week, I have been reflecting  on prayer, specifically, the account of Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane after his final meal with his disciples (see Matthew 26:36-46, Mark 14:32-42, and Luke 22:39-46). Not only the words that Jesus spoke to his disciples, but also the differences between Jesus and his disciples and how they prayed led me to this conclusion:  failing to pray is planning to fail

Praying to Prepare for What is Ahead
The comparison between Jesus and the disciples is on great display in this incident. We see Jesus taking time to pray before going to the cross. In contrast, the disciples can’t stay awake long enough to pray…not just once, but several times! It is no wonder that Jesus is ready to go to the cross while the disciples fight back and then flee and that Jesus readily affirms who he is while Peter denies even knowing Jesus.

This incident is a reminder that the most important thing we can do as we face challenges is to pray. While a good night’s sleep is important to healthy, balanced living – and also is important before facing a challenging situation – prayer is an even more vital ingredient in life. We should not just pray after we have encountered a challenge, but before the challenge even arises; we need to be prayed up and ready for these encounters. Then when the challenging situation comes, we need to pause and pray, pouring out our hearts to God and then being strengthened by Him to walk forward in obedience, no matter the cost. When we pray, we can carry our cross and follow Jesus (Matthew 16:24). The call to do so daily (see Luke 9:23) points to the need to be ready in prayer each day for whatever might come our way.

Praying To Avoid Falling Into Temptation
When Jesus finds the disciples sleeping, he tells them to “watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41). These words recall what Jesus says in the prayer that he taught his disciples (commonly called the Lord’s Prayer and found in Matthew 6:9-13), when he says “lead us out of temptation.” However, I do not think Jesus’s instructions here in the Garden are to pray specifically  that they would not enter into temptation, but rather, that the way to avoid being tempted is through praying. As we pray and turn our attention to God, the things of this world that normally  tempt us are no longer a temptation. We see the bigger story that God is weaving and also the greater rewards that are found in God rather than in the things of the world. Instead of fighting with weapons of the world – which Peter does here in the Garden – we are able to trust in the plan and Lordship of God, like we see in Jesus who ultimately is able to endure the cross because he recognized the joy set before him (Hebrews 12:1). When we pray, we recognize that our flesh is weak, but by staying close to God, our spirit can be willing to overcome these temptations. 

We need to pray to avoid temptation and to recognize the things that tempt us (the situations in which we find ourselves so easily succumbing to sin); these are the things that we should be praying about. We likely will need to do more than pray to overcome sin in our lives, but we will not truly overcome these temptations unless we pray. Praying is the starting point in the process of overcoming sin. I like to try to solve problems and “fix” things, but I shouldn’t pray only when nothing else works and I come to the end of my rope, but prayer needs to be the first step that then fuels the insights that move forward. 

Are We Planning to Pray or Planning to Fail?
The purpose of prayer is not to withdraw or escape from the world; rather, it helps us see what is happening in our lives and in the world around us so we will cry out to God for His will to be done and for us to follow His will and ways. While we often close our eyes when we pray to avoid distractions around us or to put us in a posture that is different from the rest of our daily lives, closing our eyes may make us sleepy like the disciples.. Perhaps the way we live out Jesus’s call to “watch and pray” is by praying with our eyes open– both seeing where God needs to work in the world and in our lives and then also see how He is working around us. Failing to plan and failing to pray are both ways to fail. The Garden of Gethsemane is a reminder that we need a plan to pray in order to resist temptation and follow Jesus in this world.

Questions about the Bible or theology? Email them to Pastor Brian at Theology@WeAreFaith.org. You can also request to receive weekly emails with our blog posts by filling out the information on the right side.

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