by Dr. Paul Jehle
Could you not watch one hour? Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” Mark 14:37-38
Though we know that Jesus prayed earnestly in the Garden of Gethsemane, we do not often view this as a model for corporate intercession in the church.
Jesus asked the disciples in general, and Peter, James and John in particular, to join him in prayer. It was the time, humanly speaking, that he needed them the most. They failed him in this endeavor and it tells us how difficult it is to watch and pray in a corporate sense with Jesus.
Prayer meetings are the least attended in churches, but these meetings, especially with the earnest intensity that was demonstrated in the book of Mark in Gethsemane, they are the most important.
The word Gethsemane means wine press. Jesus called his disciples into a prayer and watch meeting that would press their flesh. It was a symbol of the cross and self-denial just ahead of Christ’s crucifixion.
The temptations to give up prayer are numerous. The temptations to give up corporate prayer are even more plentiful.
It is corporate prayer, however, that holds the promise of Jesus’ presence in a special way (see Matthew 18:20). The posture of our prayer is to be one of watching, or guarding, the work of the Spirit.
A Church is most effective when the Spirit of God is moving within individuals and manifesting in the body as a whole. It is what gives us life and inspires us to continue walking with the Lord.
If there is a treasure to be guarded, it is corporate prayer that the work of the Spirit may continue. The flesh is weak, but the Holy Spirit in our spirit is willing to persevere in prayer!