Today’s Podcast
Today’s Bible reading plan:
Read it in a year – Psalms 72-74
see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)
Today’s Devotional
Matthew 26:36-38
Jesus: I am going over there to pray. You sit here while I’m at prayer.
Then He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee with Him, and He grew sorrowful and deeply distressed.
Jesus: My soul is overwhelmed with grief, to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with Me.
What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?
Prayer was such an important part of Jesus’ life. We see Him getting away from the crowd and even from His disciples whenever He had important decisions to make. We find Him alone on hillsides, in the mountains, in gardens, slipping away in the night, rising early in the morning. Jesus got away to pray by Himself. He wanted time alone with His Father to discern the best course to take at critical junctures in His life.
In this scene just before Judas comes with a squad of soldiers to place the kiss of betrayal on the Master, Jesus once again slips away to pray alone. But in this instance, as He did when Peter, James, and John witnessed His transfiguration, He asks these three to watch with Him and pray. They cannot understand the incredible strain Jesus is enduring at the moment, but they can still join with Him in prayer…if they will.
They just finished a meal. They consumed some wine. It’s getting late. They’re not sure what they’re praying about. We know what’s about to happen. Have you ever had that problem? Jesus asks them to watch and wait, but their eyes get heavy and they don’t watch very well. But there are a couple of things I think we can learn from the small exchange we see in the first part of this garden scene with Jesus and His closest friends.
First, with Jesus as our pattern, we should go to the Father with every major decision and many if not most of the minor ones we face every day. God is interested in our lives. He wants to help us through the mundane as well as the spectacular. He wants to talk with us and give us the guidance we need to make the best choices in life, not just the good choices. We can’t do that unless we talk with Him regularly about our lives.
Second, when you face difficult times, whether it’s tough decisions, distress, or sorrow as Jesus faced that night, it’s good to have partners in prayer. Jesus took His three closest friends with Him to the deepest part of the garden to pray with Him about this monumental moment that soon would forever change not just history, but the very heart of men and women throughout the rest of time. Jesus wanted His closest friends, those He thought He could count on to help Him pray to help shoulder the spiritual burden He carried that night, to lift their hearts and prayers to His Father along with His own to help Him in this great time of need.
The third thing I learn from these few verses is that Jesus didn’t take all His disciples into this deeper part of the garden. He took only three of His disciples. Did that mean He didn’t have confidence in the others? Not necessarily. But just like each of us have some friends that are closer than others, so did Jesus. Just like we have some friends we can pour our heart out to and know we will not be judged for our thoughts, Jesus probably felt the same way about Peter, James and John. These three were His inner circle. They were His confidants. We need some of those in our lives.
You probably have a lot of associates around you. People who will do things for you and with you. You know their names and a little about them and they know you in the same way. You see them around at church or work or in the neighborhood, but you probably would not list them among your list of friends if you had to start making a list of friends. You probably do have a list of friends. People you invite over to your house often. You know all about them. You might even go on vacations with them. You know you could pick up the phone and ask them for help and they would be there for you. But you don’t tell them your deep dark secrets, because they are not that close. You trust them, but not with your inner secrets. But hopefully, you have two or three people on your list that are like that. You can confide in them. You can pour your heart out to them without judgment. You know they will listen and still be there at the end of the crisis. These confidants are rare in the journey of life and I think Jesus held Peter, James, and John in this last category. We all need just a few of those kinds of folks also.
Finally, even though those close friends, those confidants, those intimate prayer partners may let you down, it’s still good to ask them to help you pray. I think Peter, James, and John probably tried to prayer for a while when Jesus first asked and if they had known the gravity of the situation would have stayed awake longer and prayed better. But even so, it set their mind on the issues that Jesus would soon face. And God probably used this time to make them great prayer warriors later as He reminded them of their failure in the garden. So don’t be afraid to ask partners to pray with you, even if they forget, fail to follow up, fall asleep, or don’t respond in the way you might like. It could be a growing period for all of you.
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