Watch & Pray

“Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.”  Luke 21:36

There exists such an internal pressure to speak and/or act before we watch and/or pray.  We are impatient, overconfident, fearful, and anxious… which drives us too often to be short sighted and unprepared.  On the Wednesday of Christ’s Passion He was speaking to those who shared this same tension.  Those who were longing for a savior and impatient for liberation.  Jesus seemed to be the quick answer for them.  A leader they could rally behind… the freedom that solved the tension.  Jesus however keeps telling them to lean into it rather than wish it away.  His message is one of preparation… of watching… of prayer. 

We stand on similar ground today.  Hopeful for deliverance from problems to solve and tensions to manage.  So focused on the deliverance that we tend to look past the deliverer.  I don’t have 5 steps to your best life this Easter… or 7 principles of Christian influence.  All I have is what I’ve been given… a heart of longing and a faith rooted and grounded on the transformational power of Jesus Christ.  All I know is He has taken my filthy rags and replaced them with garments of praise and worship.  I deserved the death He never did, and yet He took that burden upon Himself instead.  And so… I will watch and I will pray.  I will honor and I will obey.  I will set my face toward Calvary and take my place at the foot of the cross.  There and there alone will my hope come from.

Pastor Matt