How to read the bible
This devotional is written by Matt Coombs. Matt is one of the leaders of St Mary's and is married to Pip.
Matthew 26:40-41
40 Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. 'Couldn't you men keep watch with me for one hour?' he asked Peter. 41 'Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.'
Reflection
I find prayer difficult. I know I'm not alone with this. As today's passage shows, even the disciples struggled with prayer.
The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.
Whether it is falling asleep in prayer like the disciples, or as simple as our minds are busy rushing through a million things. It's common for us to find prayer difficult.
For me, when it's good, prayer is about intimate connection with God. Intimacy begins with personal relationship. You can't be emotionally intimate with someone you don't know. In the New Testament we see the close relationship that Jesus had with his Father in heaven. After a busy day preaching, healing and delivering, Jesus would go and spend time in prayer. It fuelled him to go and do his Father's will.
God has something similar in mind for us.
We can sometimes fall into the mindset that 'I need to be in right standing with God, know the right scripture etc, and then God will answer my prayers.' However, I think our prayer life should be more like a child climbing into his Father's arms, and less like an lawyer standing before a judge.
Prayer begins and ends with relationship.
The Sound of Silence
I have recently been trying to spend more time in silence as part of my prayer life. I'm an activist, I like to get things done. If I'm honest, there is a part of me that thinks I'm only as loveable as my last achievement. Anyone else? Silence, and literally doing nothing is part of the way I reject that old-self part of me.
How does it work?
It's a lot like Ministry on a Sunday but on my own. When I wake up, I move to the other room and sit on a hard chair, set an alarm on my phone for however long I want, place my hands open in my lap and I ask God to fill me by his Spirit and his love.
That's it.
The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.
Whether it is falling asleep in prayer like the disciples, or as simple as our minds are busy rushing through a million things. It's common for us to find prayer difficult.
For me, when it's good, prayer is about intimate connection with God. Intimacy begins with personal relationship. You can't be emotionally intimate with someone you don't know. In the New Testament we see the close relationship that Jesus had with his Father in heaven. After a busy day preaching, healing and delivering, Jesus would go and spend time in prayer. It fuelled him to go and do his Father's will.
God has something similar in mind for us.
We can sometimes fall into the mindset that 'I need to be in right standing with God, know the right scripture etc, and then God will answer my prayers.' However, I think our prayer life should be more like a child climbing into his Father's arms, and less like an lawyer standing before a judge.
Prayer begins and ends with relationship.
The Sound of Silence
I have recently been trying to spend more time in silence as part of my prayer life. I'm an activist, I like to get things done. If I'm honest, there is a part of me that thinks I'm only as loveable as my last achievement. Anyone else? Silence, and literally doing nothing is part of the way I reject that old-self part of me.
How does it work?
It's a lot like Ministry on a Sunday but on my own. When I wake up, I move to the other room and sit on a hard chair, set an alarm on my phone for however long I want, place my hands open in my lap and I ask God to fill me by his Spirit and his love.
That's it.
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