"Watch With ME" by Rocky Fleming
“Watch With ME”
You are likely familiar with these words spoken by Jesus to His disciples when He was facing the agony that He would soon go through. You read Him ask this in Matthew 26:38. They did not watch with Him, for they fell asleep. In Mathew 26:41 Jesus told them next to watch and pray for themselves. You may want to read this account for yourself. But we also need to understand that Jesus never asks us to do something that He wouldn’t do or hasn’t done. Though we may not watch with Him, He will watch with us. Remember this as I unfold this perspective in this blog, and the blessing it will bring to some of you.
I’d like to share my heart with you, and perhaps enter in with some of you who are suffering with challenges that have you weighed down. You have come to understand that there is nothing more you can do but watch, as things spiral out of control. Your options have been removed. Your ability to redirect things has been removed from you. That which you tried to head off with your efforts has not deterred it. Even your prayers did not stop the runaway train that you discerned would jump the track and cause destruction. It kept coming, and now what you feared or perceived would happen has become reality. If that’s where you are, then you have someone speaking to you who understands where you are and what you are dealing with, for I am there.
I’ve watched a runaway train with a family member that I just knew would suffer a trainwreck. I felt that there would be only one way that this person could change or would change, and that he would have to be to broken and reformed. It is the work of God to do this. It is consistent with Him, and I understand it firsthand with my own experience with my Lord God. Though it seems that He is ruthless with us sometimes, He is not, for His is a work of redemption and transformation, and is given with love. I somehow knew that my prayers the last several years for this troubled family member would require a drastic, and painful intercession from the Lord. I did not know what it would be. I prayed that he would turn before it would happen. I prayed that the runaway train I was watching would wise up, slow down, and take a new course. It did not, and it has now jumped the track with disastrous results and severe consequences.
Like many people who have resources, or wisdom, or the ability to “fix” things, or a perceived responsibility to do so, we try to solve the problem with our best efforts. That is our first instinct. But when those things don’t work, we understand how very limited we are with what really needs to be done, and then we pray. We may have been praying all along, but we then discover even that our prayers don’t stop the runaway tragedy that we perceive is coming. When all those things do not stop the train, we feel defeated. But are we really defeated? Is it all over, since the tragedy came as we feared it would? Has God been outdone with this crisis in our life? We think He has, and our faith is shaken. But is our faith being shaken, or is it being tested? Do we still stand firm with Jesus and His plan when we are told the clock has ended and the game is over, or do we pack up and leave and not understand that He who could raise a dead Lazarus still controls the clock and He knows when the game is over. Out of the ashes and ruins will emerge a miracle, a new birth, a new hope and a new resurrection for us as surely as Lazarus responded to Jesus who said, “Lazarus come forth,” if we will wait and watch with Him. He is watching with us. Will we watch with Him?
This week, after the runaway train in my family left the tracks and that which I feared would happen became reality, I heard spoken to my heart, “Sit and watch with ME.” In other words, the game is not over. Keep watching what Jesus will do. In the middle of this crisis, I felt a peace fall over me that assured me that Jesus is still at work even now. In some divine way and as tragic as things appear, I’ve been assured that the events that have taken place will fall into a plan that has eternal significance. Hearing the Lord tell me to watch with Him, is the essence of what He was asking His disciples to do, only it was for His comfort then, and it is for my comfort now. They failed Him. But He will not fail me.
Jesus’ message to Watch with Me gives me permission to keep hope alive. It gives me permission to look beyond this present crisis and see a new day coming, and a new hope that will be ahead. It is to see, by faith, a resurrection of the train as it is repaired, lifted, and transformed into a useful, healed soul. It tells me that He who is familiar with impossible situations has not given up, and nor should I. His plan is still developing into a master strategy for redemption, and I need watch what He does. It will be His work and not mine. His message to me gave me instructions to do nothing but watch with Him. I’m not to interfere or help even if I have the perceived ability to do so. As I embraced His instructions, I entered a peace and assurance that looks beyond the crisis and the demand that I must act, and instead embrace that I have nothing to do but watch with Him. He will do that which I cannot, and which is needed. I can tell you I needed to hear this. I didn’t realize how much until His peace fell over me.
If any of you are processing similar runaway trains in your life, I pray that you will receive Jesus’ encouragement to not give up, but to watch with Him, and see what He will do. Don’t give up. The game is not over.