<p>22:46 <i>And said to them: Why do you sleep? Get up and pray, so that you will not enter into temptation</i>- Each statement of the apparently simple model prayer needs careful reflection. The Lord told the disciples in Gethsemane to earnestly pray the simple saying: &ldquo;Pray not to fail in the test&rdquo; (Mt. 26:41 cp. 6:13). The prayer that they could gabble mindlessly must be prayed with intense attention to every phrase. They presumably did pray as directed, but the Lord later warns them: &ldquo;Why do you sleep? Get up and pray, so that you will not enter into temptation&rdquo;. He intended them to keep on praying, as He spent an hour praying the same words; and not just rattle off a few words and think we have done our praying. Just as the tribulation of the last days seems to be conditional upon our faith, so the Lord may imply that entering into the time of trial or testing was avoidable by their prayer and faith. Again we see the final time of tribulation as reflective of the Lord&rsquo;s sufferings, enabling the very last generation to identify with the Lord&rsquo;s death so that they might share in His resurrection.</p><p>Without being ostentatious in the eyes of others, try to use a physical position in prayer which is conducive to concentration. There are Biblical examples of prayer standing, kneeling, sitting, sitting cross-legged, with hands uplifted... Remember how the Lord told the disciples to <i>rise</i> and pray; He could see that curled up as they were, they were more likely to nod off to sleep than intensely pray (Lk. 22:46). He had already told them to pray (v. 40), and doubtless they had obediently started praying, but had fallen asleep while doing so. &quot;<i>Rise</i> and pray&quot; surely suggests: 'Come on men, I told you to pray, but you can't pray lounging around like that'. And I would bet many of us need the same words.</p><p>How He prayed is an example of the Lord&rsquo;s words being made flesh in His living. He taught His men to pray &ldquo;Your will be done&rdquo;; and in Gethsemane, He prayed those very words Himself, even though praying them meant an acceptance of crucifixion (Mt. 26:52). In that same context, the Lord asks His men to pray that they enter not into temptation (Lk. 22:46). He was asking them to pray His model prayer just as He was doing. His own example was to be their inspiration. I wonder too, in passing, whether the Lord&rsquo;s request at that time that the cup of suffering pass from Him (Mk. 14:35) was His way of praying not to be led into temptation- for perhaps He momentarily feared that He would finally spiritually stumble under the burden of the cross? This surely is the meaning of the hymn that speaks of living more nearly as we pray.</p><p>Each statement of the apparently simple model prayer needs careful reflection. The Lord told the disciples in Gethsemane to earnestly pray the simple saying: &ldquo;Pray not to fail in the test&rdquo; (Mt. 26:41 cp. 6:13). The prayer that they could gabble mindlessly must be prayed with intense attention to every phrase. They presumably did pray as directed, but the Lord later warns them: &ldquo;Why do you sleep? Get up and pray, so that you will not enter into temptation&rdquo;. He intended them to keep on praying, as He spent an hour praying the same words; and not just rattle off a few words and think we have done our praying. Just as the tribulation of the last days seems to be conditional upon our faith, so the Lord may imply that entering into the time of trial or testing was avoidable by their prayer and faith. Again we see the final time of tribulation as reflective of the Lord&rsquo;s sufferings, enabling the very last generation to identify with the Lord&rsquo;s death so that they might share in His resurrection.</p>