How to Handle Tough Times

Grace for All

Pray Always

Matthew 26:36-41

Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

The Bible teaches us Jesus was fully human and fully divine, which can be a hard concept to understand. You might think the divine side would overshadow the human side but what we see in these verses was Jesus dealing with a very troubling issue and demonstrating to us how he dealt with his human emotions. Jesus was troubled deeply about what was about to happen to him, so he decided to go off and pray about it; this is a good model for us when we are troubled about something. The other thing that he did was take some friends and ask them to also pray for him; this is also a great model for us. The Bible teaches us that God hears our prayers, how much more powerful will that be when a group of people are all praying for the same thing.

Unfortunately, in this story, Jesus’ friends got distracted and instead of praying, they fell asleep. Jesus told them to “watch and pray,” I think this means to stay focused when you are praying. It is easy to get distracted or tempted to do something else instead of focusing on our prayers. When Jesus said, “The spirt is willing, but the flesh is weak,” it is like he knows us really well. Sometimes we want to do something good like pray for something troubling us or to pray for a friend, but instead we get distracted and don’t do it. Reading stories like this in the Bible, help us to know that we are not alone and also encourage us to do the right thing like being focused when we are praying.

Will you pray with me now?

Lord, thank you for the stories in the Bible to teach and encourage us. Thank you for hearing our prayers when something is bothering us and also thank you for letting us pray for our friends. Amen

This devotion was written and read by Owen Ragland with help from Levi and Lyla Ragland.

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by the members of the congregation of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. With these devotionals, we want to remind listeners on a daily basis of the love and grace that God extends to all human beings, no matter their location, status, or condition in life.

If you would like to respond to these devotionals in any way, we would enjoy hearing from you. Our email address is: [e-mail].

First United Methodist Church is a lively, spirit-filled congregation whose goal is to spread the message of love and grace into our community and throughout the world. We are located on the web at https://1stchurch.org/.