Pray Watch
Sacha Weakland
The booklet for adults offers a daily Bible verse, a short reflection, an idea for 'watching', and a prayer. It invites us to seek God in both familiar and unfamiliar places this Lent: in darkness and in quiet; in movement and migration; in the healing and transforming work of the Spirit; in the weeping of Holy Week and in the joy of Easter morning.
Find out about all the ways you and your family can get involved in the Watch and Pray journey, including booklets for grown-ups, videos for young people and ideas for churches and groups on the Church of England website.
The first letter is called "The Fourth Watch." That letter comes from the sixth chapter of Mark. The Savior has fed the five thousand that day, and in the late afternoon, early evening, He is sending his apostles down into the ship. He will dismiss the multitude. He wishes to pray that evening, and then He will meet the apostles a little later on the shore and they are to pick Him up. In late afternoon, early evening, the apostles get on the ship; they push out in the Sea of Galilee. The Savior dismisses the multitude, and prays. The Savior could pray a long time; so, He prays late into the night. We read in Mark what takes place with the apostles:
"Behold, ye shall be as a whale in the midst of the sea; for the mountain waves shall dash upon you. Nevertheless, I will bring you up again out of the depths of the sea; for the winds have gone forth out of my mouth, and also the rains and the floods have I sent forth."
"Behold, I prepare you against these things; for ye cannot cross this great deep save I prepare you against the waves of the sea, and the winds which have gone forth, and the floods which shall come. What will ye that I should prepare for you that ye may have light when ye are swallowed up in the depths of the sea?" (Ether 2:25)
"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, (meaning being human, imperfect) know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give (good things, give) the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" (9-13)
God listens to prayers in all languages, but He answers them in French. They are beautiful, wonderful people. I had a great mission. I found out when I got home that I had French ancestors, and, that I served in some of the cities where they had lived. God did not give me a stone. A stone, when you want bread, is something useless. God does not give useless things. He did not give me a serpent; a serpent, when you want a fish, is something harmful. He does not give harmful things; He only gives bread, and fish, and eggs.
My parents were divorced when I was one year old. My father, for not the best of reasons, left the family. That caused certain concerns, certain problems, certain challenges for my mother, my two sisters, and myself.
"Hearken, O ye people of my church, saith the voice of him who dwells on high, and whose eyes are upon all men; yea, verily I say: Hearken ye people from afar; and ye that are upon the islands of the sea, listen together."
Urgent comes alongside indigenous believers in some of the hardest to reach places on earth. There, we seek to make disciples, multiply churches and provide humanitarian relief in ways that are biblically faithful and practically effective.
I think about my life today, your life today. We are moments away from wrecking our lives. If we are not spiritually alert, if we are not sensitive to temptation that is lurking around the corner, and if we are not walking diligently with Jesus in His spirit, according to His word, there is an adversary who today wants to wreck our lives. He wants to destroy our lives, our families, our relationships, our witness.
God, we pray that you would guard us, keep us, hold us fast in you all day long today. And help us not to enter into temptation today, to resist temptation, to flee sin and temptation in every way as you taught us to pray. Jesus, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
Many people wonder about different aspects of prayer and wish they could grow more disciplined in their prayer life. I know for a fact that I need to be more disciplined about it. Prayer is communication with God and brings us greater intimacy with Him. We cannot be nonchalant about it because there is dynamic power in prayer. We have to be assertive and proactive.
We are urged to be sober, to watch UNTO prayer, to continue in prayer, and to watch IN prayer with thanksgiving. The following scriptures are very specific and speak to the entire person. It is remarkable when we analyse the Greek text that the scripture is urging us to be sober in mind, in spirit and in body.
Now think about what all this is saying:
Be mentally and spiritually sound or sober as well as physically cautious and alert. Go into prayer as if you are inside a bubble and stay focused in prayer while you are inside. Continue to do this with thankfulness to God because the end of all things is approaching.
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Watch and Pray invites us to seek God in both familiar and unfamiliar places this Lent: in darkness and in quiet; in movement and migration; in the healing and transforming work of the Spirit; in the weeping of Holy Week and in the joy of Easter morning.
The Archbishops' Young Leader Award has six weeks of collective worship resources for schools including liturgical suggestions, Bible passage activity, video exploration, practical and prayerful actions, and additional ideas for connecting home, church and school.
Watch and pray
These two are very justly put together. There is, and ought to be, a watching before prayer, and "unto" it; a watching all opportunities, the most suitable and convenient to perform it; and there is a watching in it, both over our hearts, thoughts, words, and gestures, and after it, for a return of it, and answer to it: the reason of this exhortation follows,
that ye enter not into temptation;
not that they might not be tempted at all; for none of the saints have been, or are without temptations; and they are needful for them; and it is the will of God they should be attended with them; and he has made gracious provisions for their help and relief under them; but that they might not enter into them, throw themselves in the way of temptation, be surprised by them at an unawares, fall into them headlong, be immersed in them, fall by them, and be overcome with them, so as to forsake Christ, or to deny him:
the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak:
meaning either that the evil spirit Satan was very desirous of having them in his hands; very forward and ready to make the onset upon them; was cheerful, alert, and confident of victory; and was strong, robust, and powerful; and they were but flesh and blood, very weak and infirm, and unequal to the enemy; which is a sense not to be despised, seeing it carries in it a very strong reason why they ought to watch and pray, lest they fall into the temptations of such a powerful adversary; see ( Ephesians 6:12 ) ( 1 Peter 5:8 ) , or else by "spirit" may be meant the soul, as renewed and regenerated by the spirit of God; particularly the principle of grace in it, which is born of the Spirit, and is called by the same name, and which lusts against the flesh, or corrupt nature: this was willing to watch and pray, and guard against falling into temptations; was willing to abide by Christ, and express its love to him every way; but "the flesh", or "body", so the Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions read, is "weak" and infirm, prone to sleep, indulges ease, and unfit to bear trouble, but ready to sink under it, and is for fleeing from it: and so the words contain our Lord's excuse of his disciples in their present circumstances. Munster's Hebrew Gospel reads the words thus, and "indeed the spirit is (tdqwv) , watchful, but the flesh is weak". The Ethiopic version after this manner, "the spirit desires, and the body is fatigued". The Persic version, contrary both to the letter and sense of the words, renders them, "my spirit is firm, but my body is infirm".
I feel as if I live in two different worlds. One world is the United States, where my wife and I live in Michigan, her home state. Then there's the rest of the world. I travel frequently to Ghana in Africa and England, my home country. Occasionally I also visit other countries. Oddly enough, there's a certain sameness to all of these, at least in the area about which I'm writing. Let me explain.
In January I was in Ghana. Almost every day I was able to watch CNN International on the television in my hotel room. Where this was not possible, I could listen to the BBC World Service on my portable radio.
CNN International is a channel that comes out of London. It's owned by CNN in Atlanta but is quite different from the U.S. version. Its focus is far more international, as is the BBC World Service, which is available 24/7 on radio in Ghana's capital city of Accra and can be heard across much of the globe.
When I'm overseas I watch international news programs whose primary focus truly is international. As soon as I return to America, the U.S. presidential election is about all there is. No wonder most Americans see themselves and their country as the central focus of everything.
While it remains true that the president of the United States is the world's most important political figure, a great deal is happening around the world that should also grab the attention of Americans. More importantly, there's a great deal happening that should grab the attention of Christians.
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