Could you not watch with me one hour?
Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, "Sit here, while I go over there and pray." And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, "My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me." And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, "My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will." And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, "So, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, "My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done." And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again. Then he came to the disciples and said to them, "Sleep and take your rest later on. See,the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. (Matthew 26:36-45)
Let me give you a practical matter and then give you some tips on how to do this.
Ok, here's the deal: As a Church we are praying from 6pm tonight until 6am tomorrow morning. Everyone that signed up needs to stick to the hour that they signed up for so we make sure that we are praying all night as a church. a sign up sheet was filled out thoroughly at Crew last Sunday. If you weren't there, you can pick anytime. Every slot was covered so that's not a problem. If you don't remember what you signed up for, email or call me and I'll let you know.
Now for some tips. There are by no means rules to this, but to help you have a meaningful prayer time I thought I'd give some suggestions based on what I'm planning on doing. If it helps great, if not then ignore it.
--If you have some worship CD's, you might turn them on softly as background music as you pray and read. Instrumental stuff would probably be less distracting.
--Start out reading your daily readings out of our Lent booklet.
--Praise and adore God for who is. Not necessarily what he's done for you or asking for stuff. Simply saying to him and yourself what the traits of God are and why that's great and how He is real. Things like his size, his beauty, his grace, his holiness, his mercy, his compassion, his love, I could keep going. Zero in on a couple of these and simply adore him.
--Read Isaiah 52:13-53:12.
--Confess any sin that may be in your life. Ask God to reveal an area of change that needs to happen. Truly receive the forgiveness that has been provided by Jesus death.
--Thank God for Jesus and his death and let the reality of that sink in. Think of the benefits that are ours because of Jesus.
--Ask God to give you a meaningful Good Friday and deep anticipation of Easter and the resurrection
--Pray for what is on your heart as a concern or worry or need. Pray for your small group, church, leaders, Huntington, people by name.
--Finally, post a prayer, reflection, testimony, whatever on the comment section of this blog to be shared by Crew.
Thanks guys. I hope this is a great night for you and I look forward to praying with you tonight!
JP
posted by Josh Perry at
9:19 AM
20 Comments:
Lent has been a great time of reflection. I have really enjoyed the guided readings. They have helped me read in a more structured and accountable way. It was amazing how many of the passages spoke to me. , like many people I think, believe the New Testament speaks more clearly. However, the Psalms held some messages for me.
This has been a difficult year in which i have been confronted with the loss of my mother and physical issues. At times it has been difficult to stay positive. However, the one constant during these times has been the love of Christ. These readings reminded me of that and caused me to reflect on how steady He has been since the day I accepted him in May, 1969. As Psalm 6:8-9 said, "For the Lord had heard the voice of my weeping. The Lord has heard my supplications. The Lord receives my prayer." He is always there.
I have to admit, I was glad to see Phil. 4 in the readings. Those were some of the first scriptures I learned, and they continue to be a blessing today. They assure us that we can ask God for anything and remind us not to be anxious and that God will grant us the peace that passes all understanding.
So as I reflect on this time, I am most thankful for this peace. Thank you Crew Community for being a group that holds each other up in prayer. Thank you Josh for being a teacher who brings the Word to us boldly and clearly.
Brenda McKee
As I read the passage in Isaiah, I am speechless. Sitting here, I praise your name and can’t begin to thank you enough for literally going through Hell for us. I know that I complain on a daily basis. To think that I have ever undergone a fraction of the turmoil that you went through is completely and utterly out of the question. You suffered more in your three short years of ministry than we will ever suffer in a lifetime. Oh, how I wish I could take back all the times I said I was tired, hungry, thirsty, ignored, abandoned, and poor. You, Lord, know what it is like to be the most tired, hungriest, thirstiest, most ignored, abandoned, and poorest person who ever walked the earth. Yet, you never complained. How magnificent are you, Lord! Help me to do the same!
Lauren White
During this time of reflection and prayer, as I think about Jesus' ultimate sacrifice, I am filled with an overwhelming sense of gratitude and awe in regards to God's constant love and compassion. God always has our backs, even when (especially when) we turn our backs on him.
In the last year I have been emerging from the darkest period of my life, due to severe post-partum depression that began two months after I had my son, and continued for a little over two years. During those dark times, when I was constantly filled with lonliness, pain, and despair, God watched over me and had my back, even though I had turned my back on him.
As I have been emerging back into the light, I am so humbled and grateful for Jesus' love, compassion, and sacrifice. He suffered such betrayal and unimaginable pain, yet he never turned his back on those who beleived - or even those who betrayed Him.
I Thank God for guiding me and my family to Crew. You all welcomed us with such warmth and acceptance from the moment we walked in - I knew instantly that I was right where God wanted me to be. Thank you Crew community for instantly embracing me and my family, mirroring Jesus' instantaneous acceptance of all who believed. Thank you, Josh, for being fearless and passionate in teaching us God's Word, and for keeping it real and relevant.
God Bless you all...
Tia
This has been a great experience, through and through. With our Ministry with Child Evangelism Fellowship, we havent been able to attend all of the events. However, the daily readings, the fasting for lent, and this past hour of prayer and reflection has been AMAZING. Truly life changing. We truly want to thank God for giving Josh and the elders this vision of what our church needed to do to celebrate this wonderful season of Easter.
We wanted to leave with a verse from the reading tonight. Jeremiah 20:11 says, "But the Lord is with me like a mighty warrior; so my persecutors will stumble and not prevail. They will fail and be thoroughly disgraced; their dishonor will never be forgotten."
Hold fast guys and gals, we're serving a MIGHTY God whose in control!!!
Love In Christ,
Nathan Sayre and Erin Kiser
One hour. 60 minutes. Your favorite reality show. We make time for this. We make time for friends. We make time to sit in front of the tv or playing video games. The question, "Could you not watch with me one hour?" These words flowed from the lips of my Savior and those these words were said to His faithful followers many years ago, these words flow again today to those of us who claim to love and follow Christ.
I have never experienced Lent. Needless to say, I have never given up something in my life for the sake of my Lord. Last night during the dinner, going through the ritual of the seda, I found myself so focused. My senses were heightened to a level where I honestly could hear His voice, feel the urgency and the sorrow, taste the sadness and despair. It was amazing.
As I sit here now in my hour of watch, I closed my eyes and again I found myself completely focused. This time feeling the dread of what my Savior was feeling as He prayed and prepared for the ultimate sacrifice. I know that there is nothing that I can give, nothing that I can say, nothing that I can ever do that will equal the amount of sacrificial love that my Lord gave. But there is one thing that I can and will do. I will watch with my Lord one hour and I will take this entire experience of Lent and Easter and I will desire my Savior more, love my Savior more and serve my Savior more. Thank you my Jesus for this awakening in my life.
Michele Sigler
I am so grateful for this past hour. It was a time for me to remember, which is something I need to do more of. I was able to really remember and focus on who God is and the blessings he has given me in my life. He is the almighty; he is kind, compassionate, loving, and most of all forgiving and much more. I remembered that I want to be like him, and need to strive to do so. I also realized that I take God's love for granted. He is ALWAYS with me, and many times I forget to thank him for that.
As I was praying and thinking about the huge sacrifice God made when he sent his son to die for me, I really began to understand the depth of that. I am a mother and the connection and love I have for my daughter is indescribable. So it makes me appreciate how hard it was for God to send his son knowing what would happen to him. And he did this for me, for my family, for my child, and for everyone. Now that is LOVE. And I am so thankful for that.
I am thankful for the opportunity to reflect. It made me realize that I need more time like this in my life in order to strengthen and grow in my relationship with the father. I am thankful for a church to share this experience with. Life truly is wonderful.
Kristin Norris
God is lovely if for no other reason than the simple fact that He was most definitely the only thing that kept me awake through my hour.
:)
ashley burdette
I just want to thank God for Crew. I have never been to a church where I have felt God's love as much as here. The past few months have been rough, but I thank God that He has been with me and helped me find peace. God is so good.
Laura Miller
Holy, Holy, Holy! I am still in awe of the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus which is free to us. He indeed had a choice and He chose to give himself up for me, for you, for the people who surround you and I every single day.
The beauty of Jesus is incomparable and in partaking in the Lent series I have come to understand more and more the power that is within the bible. Those very words have led many to see, feel, and know the one and only person we need in life to be satisfied. How beautiful and creative is our God.
I love you Jesus, I love you Crew!
Bridget
Well my hour of delight with my Lord is over. I don't want it to end. I know I am going to go lay down in bed again and want more of you God. My house is so quiet without the sound of 6 little feet pitter pattering. This hour for me has refreshed my soul. It has been MY time to in peace focus on MY God. With my music playing, reading the Bible, and crying out in prayer I truely feel like me and MY God are romanceing. You know when you are having fun time flies it has been like that for me this past hour, too short and in writing this I am already 10 min. over my time slot! Oops.
I love you all at Crew and these past 4 years knowing, loving and serving you guys have been such an honor. I have LOVED every minute!
With an overflowing heart,
Sarah Perry
I have never been the greatest when it comes to praying. The words just don't seem to flow. It feels like a drippy faucet rather than the roaring river I want it to be. Therefore, I spent most of my time reading and meditating on what Jesus has done in my life, and how he gave the ultimate sacrifice to save us all.
Sometimes the words did come. I prayed for forgiveness. Forgiveness for my sins against him and against others. I parayed for strength. Strength to do what God wants me to do.
And I thanked Him. I thanked Him for this week of oppurtunity. I thanked Him for taking the burden of the world on His shoulders for us. I thanked Him for all that he has given me, my wife, my daughter, my dogs. I thanked Him for Crew, because it is the Church family I have been searching for.
Kyle Norris
For a long time I've been struggling with my prayer life, not spending enough time with God. I get discouraged when the prayer isn't very deep and I feel far from Him and unsure how to fix that. I struggle with realizing the importance of praying, so I don't feel inspired or motivated to fight through my discouragement and engage in extended, meaningful prayer. Tonight I realized that prayer fuels EVERYTHING. It is me interacting with my God and the source of all of my life, and through that interaction He inspires me and leads me in absolutely every aspect of my life. I get to know Him better and learn His will and how to enjoy every aspect of life. I've been worrying so much about things I should or shouldn't do... that shouldn't be my main focus. Seeking God and spending time in His love will inspire everything else I could do. I want to use music all out for Him, fully using the gift he's given me, but I feel somehow that that gift and my relationship with God have not fully connected and come together in my life. BUT if I just spend more time with Him, praying, loving Him, like I did tonight, then He will fuel everything else that could possibly be good in my life including music. “Don't worry about anything but pray about everything.” “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” I've been worrying about the desires of my heart and whether they are good or bad. That's not what I need to be primarily concerned about! The main concern should be loving God. I should be so in love with God that He inspires those desires to become action in such a powerful way that there is no time or need to analyze them. When the focus is Jesus, everything else follows naturally. He said the most important command from God is “love God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.” When He was talking about things that we need, He said “put first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these other things will be added to you.”
The other big thought I had tonight (I know it's technically morning but that's not how I see it) involved the extent of my understanding of grace. I have been getting bogged down in prayer by feeling like I should be more thankful and more excited about who God is and what He's done, and I've been stopping and thinking about that truth and how to maybe fix it. I feel like I'm not thankful enough, so I assume something must be wrong, like I should be believing more or something. Instead, it hit me that I should just be honest with God about that. I know I am totally unworthy of being saved and of receiving Jesus's sacrifice for me, but I've been feeling like it's my responsibility to praise and thank Him for who He is and for doing those things for me. My inadequacy, however, includes my inability to understand Him, thank Him, or praise Him even close to enough for what He did. I need Him to save me, totally apart from anything I could ever do, but I also need Him to allow me to be thankful and to praise Him, because I can't do that on my own either. I am totally nothing and unable to do anything without Him. If I lean on Him to help me with that, then real praise and thankfulness that I really do want to give Him will actually happen through the strength He gives me, and feeling inadequate can fuel my prayer life instead of hindering it.
During this time of year, we often think about Christ's sacrifice for us. His death and payment for our sins on the cross becomes more real and clear than most moments throughout the year. In the past few years, this reality of HIS death, HIS suffering for MY SIN, for MY rebellion has frequently literally broken me and brought me to being able to do nothing else but cry out to God - resting on the promises that my "utterances and groanings" would be heard and understood by my heavenly Father. Those moments are so rich - so powerful.
But then I have gone back to my "everyday" life.
While those moments have meant so much in understanding what God offers to me and what Jesus truly did for me, I reluctantly admit I don't live like I really get it. This happens in a couple ways:
1) I often forget that I am forgiven and dwell over my sin and guilt. I am remaining in bondage to something that Christ released me of on the cross. When I accepted him as my Savior - his forgiveness covered all and I took on HIS righteousness. Thus I am clean and right in God's eyes and he promises to remember my sin no more. Its sometimes hard to for me to remember that.
2)Not only is it the falling back into sinful or complacent ways (which we all can be aware of), but it is also the way in which I forget to extend to others the same grace, love, acceptance and forgiveness that I am continually needing and trusting God for my own life. I have to remind myself and pray daily that God would help me forgive as I have been forgiven.... help me to love, as I have been loved. With the reality of what Christ endured for MY sin so in my face- I remember he did it for ALL our sin. If I am forgiven, how can I not forgive others?
I am so thankful for what Christ did on my behalf as well as the patience God has for me. I can do nothing good on my own- but have to rely on the Holy Spirit to help me give God the glory he so deserves.
After an hour of prayer, reflection, and reading, I have become more aware of the power of prayer in my daily life.
The realization of God's promise, on an acute level of understanding of its power, is an emotional journey.
The love behind the death of Christ is so great, pure, and true, comprehension of it's magnitude is not possible for me, but recognition of its power and place in my life through the struggles of this Lenten season and disciplined prayer have become a reminder that it is only by Christ's death that I am capable of living.
As a relatively new parent, I can only imagine how it would feel to offer the life of my own son for a planet of sinners, who mocked him and refused to hear his message. God grant me the humility to follow the direction you have given us through the life of your son.
As I look out at the moon tonight, full, in all its glory, I will never cease to be amazed by you and your love for me. Thank you God for this hour we have spent together. Thank you Crew for the fellowship.
Peace be with all of us. Our Savior has risen.
Tim Ross
As I read this morning and prayed, I was struggling to decide what I would post. As I was reading in Luke 5, it came to me. It says in Luke 5.11 that the fishermen came to shore and left everything to follow Jesus. I have heard it taught before that that means that we are to leave our worldly gains and follow Christ, or leave our "troubled past" and follow Christ. Although both of those sound like incredible ways to start your relationship with God, I am looking at that scripture a different way this morning.
I feel that God has been dealing with me on the issue of worship. I come from a charismatic background, where worship is a huge part of the service but to me it often felt showy or forced. Some of you probably come from a very conservative background where raising or clapping your hands would probably warrant stares and post church gossip. But in Luke 5 this morning, verse 11 jumped out at me. Leave everything and follow Him. When I get to church, I need to leave everything at the door. I need to come into the presence of believers and God himself and worship. In 1 Timothy 2.8, Paul tells us to lift up "holy hands" and pray. I see that as just a chance to surrender ourselves to God as we sing about his mighty works, grace, and mercy.
I thank God that He chose such a significant time to show me that my worship needs more attention, or rather that He needs and wants more of my attention. What could be a better time than when we are celebrating God's ultimate sacrifice. A time that we should be pouring ourselves out and worshiping so intensely that we have nothing left, because without Jesus' death on the cross, where would we be?
Jamie
Father, we have prayed all night to you. We fought off sleep to stay awake. We struggled to keep from drifting off in our minds and with our words down rabbit trails of thinking. And you have met us there.
Jesus thank you for dying for my sin and raising from the dead and sending me the Holy Spirit. It occured to me that in the gospel according to Matthew, the disciples were to stay up with you in order to encourage you and to pray for you because death was coming. We wanted to experience that same thing as a church at Crew. Yet the opposite thing has happened on this side of your death and resurrection. The God who never sleeps stayed up with us to encourage us.
Holy Spirit, you prayed for us when all we could do is nod in and out of sleep and groan. You helped us. You taught us. You reminded us of truth.
Thanks my 3 in 1 God for watching with me for one hour.
I did some reading in Deuteronomy 30 this morning. God gives His people a simple choice: life and prosperity or death and destruction. Obedience to God leads to the former while disobedience leads to the latter. It seems like such a simple choice, yet so often I have chosen the path of disobedience. This has kept me from living fully for God, yet I am not dead. Why? Especially as I think about this "Good" Friday, I see that my sin led to the death of Jesus. I realize that for me to get to have a relationship with God that this death was necessary, but I am having a hard time with the word Good. Is it good for the innocent to die for the guilty? Is it good that Jesus suffered so that I would not have to be whipped and beaten for my sin? Maybe the name should be Necessary Friday or something like that. My sin led to His death. Lord, forgive me for not fully grasping and appreciating the depth of your sacrifice for me. Thank you for it. Yet without the reality of the resurrection could I even go on living myself knowing that I caused your death? Praise be to God that the death of Jesus was not the final chapter, but just the turning of the page. Jesus lives, so I can live forever as well. By God's strength and grace may I begin to choose obedience more often than disobedience. My sin has caused enough death and destruction already.
Jason B.
I was unable to post this last night..but now i will post my thoughts that i wrote.
I sometimes find myself thinking about the disciples...this night, this very night..the disciples fought sleep..oh so long ago...I imagine them hearing Jesus cry out....I imagine how confused they felt....and they slept..not a normal sleep..but a troubled sleep..sleeping their worries away..oh the doubts that must have flooded their minds...and here we are..and here i am...writing this thing at about saaaayyy 11:43...it feels so late..and my eyes are heavy..but i know it's worth it. We're coming up on the celebration..the celebration of our Savior destroying the grave...the death which brought us life...and i feel peace...the peace the disciples couldn't find that night in the garden...this whole lead up to Easter has been trully amazing i can't really explain it...but i feel change..in my prayers..actions..and life in general..I pray we all feel that...this vigil will have ended by the time anyone reads this..but let's embrace the exhaustion...embrace the yawns..the heavy eyes...and embrace the death..the brutal..ugly..miserable..death of Christ..and the life brought to us..through that.
Mark McKee
My Lord and Heavenly Father, Thank You for all sacrificed for me. And thank you for leading Larry and I to this church and for a Pastor who is willing to get us out of our comfort zone, but to get us to here the story of your people, providing the Passover, and then calling us to pray the night Jesus prayed, and then let it lead us into worship. Josh and the elders with the help of others sought a different way to help us look anew at what price our Lord made. Please bless all who had a part of this awsome week. I love you Lord and my Father. Amen
Michelle Gould
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