“And when he came to the place, he said to them, ‘Pray that you may not enter into temptation.’” – Luke 22:40
As Jesus was going into the Garden of Gethsemane to prepare Himself for the cross through prayer, He gave these instructions to His disciples. Jesus would use the next few hours to wrestle in prayer with some profoundly deep aspects of God’s will. His disciples, on the other hand, simply needed to be praying for themselves. For the trial ahead of them. That they wouldn’t be tempted by cowardice to run away or deny knowing Jesus (they did). That they wouldn’t give in to the temptation to sleep rather than laboring faithfully in prayer in solidarity with Jesus (they did).
Had they prayed as Jesus told them to, only God can say how their experience that night might have been different. However, clearly they didn’t pray and they certainly gave into temptation. Let that be a lesson to us – it is good and appropriate to pray that we don’t enter into temptation. We should be actively praying for that alongside all our other prayer requests. Those are prayers God will often answer by the sheltering and strengthening power of His Spirit in you. Make time each day to pray seriously for yourself that you wouldn’t enter into temptation. #FollowJesus