TEXT: MATT. 26:41
''Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.'' KJV
''Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak!” NLT
''Stay awake and pray, so that you won't enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." CSB
God is alive and ever awake: so must all who trade with Him be: He who wishes to touch Him must stay awake and alive toward Him. God is not the God of the dead, but of the living: only the living can do Him any service. Those who give sleep to their eyes during divine duties are obnoxious to Him: hence Jesus joined wakefulness and prayer together. Prayer, like any other holy duty, is done with all alertness and stability of the whole man. Many there are, who, during hour prayer, are never indeed awake to God and to the business over which they so approach Him. He who comes to the place of prayers, must see to it that he brings his spirit, soul and body: these three, must be actively alive and involved in all the business of our praying. When the spirit is willing and the flesh is not; or the flesh is willing and the spirit or soul is not, there cannot be a heaven-taking prayer at all! In prayer, the soul is frustrated if the flesh be flat in its motion. If sleep closes the eyes, the mouth would accordingly be closed, hence prayer is frustrated. Prayer is a business only for the wakeful: lovers of sleep cannot trade with heaven. No slave of sleep has ever counted in spiritual matters and things! In heaven, there is no night: hence, those that are of that city, are ever awake. In the pursuit of God, a man must be fully awake! Dullness, slumbering and snoring are obnoxious fume before the throne of grace. Our Lord requests the disciples to stay awake in order to pray, to show once and for all that, he who approaches God, must stay awake and be lively. Friends, in coming to God in prayer, we must drag our whole being thither: we must appear and stay before Him fully awake, taking notes, asking and answering questions. To watch and pray, is to be sober, well balanced and self-disciplined; alert, cautious in prayer; staying sensitive to the motion of heaven and that of our hearts.