Some logical reasoning has crept into the church unaware, and our minds are so accustomed to these ideas that we accept them without asking questions. Just as it is commonly practiced in choosing a life partner, we have been told to watch while we pray to find the bone of our bone, and the flesh of our flesh. In fact it is also commonly reported that, if you pray without being on the look out you will most likely loose out on the right person i.e. you will not know when he or she pass by you. Much as “watch and pray” is directly attributed and linked to Jesus statement to His disciples at the garden of Gethsemane, it is obvious that there is serious misunderstanding, most likely due to the King James English translation of the bible.
Matthew 26: 41 in HSBC version states “stay awake and pray, so that you won’t enter into temptation. The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak”. What has been translated as “watch” by the King James translators and commonly used in churches today means to stay on guard, alert or be awake. This was because in verse 40 after Jesus prayed for a while, He found that His disciples were sleeping and did not join Him praying. So He had to tell them to stay awake and pray just as He was doing.
If you believe that what Jesus meant is that each time we pray specifically about a situation we should also rely on our senses to get the results, then it means we are no longer relying on Him to handle the situation we are praying about, then the question is why do we pray if our senses can do the job? It is possible that God communicates His will about what we are praying for through our senses but this will purely be as He wills, in essence, God has a way of working through us (For it is God who works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure {Philippians 2: 13}). The best of what our senses produces is still referred to as our decisions, except God has worked through it; God’s will and workings is irrespective of our senses. Next time we pray, we should not be mindful of looking for what it will look like. We should pray with alertness of mind towards God not “pray-sleeping” or “pray-mind traveling”.
-adeyiga awomuti
