Luke 22:39-44 (The Message)
“Leaving there, He went, as He so often did, to Mount Olives. The disciples followed Him. When they arrived at the place, He said, “Pray that you don’t give in to temptation.”
He pulled away from them about a stone’s throw, knelt down, and prayed, “Father, remove this cup from me. But please, not what I want. What do You want?” At once an angel from heaven was at His side, strengthening Him. He prayed on all the harder. Sweat, wrung from Him like drops of blood, poured off His face.”
Jesus asked God the Father to consider another way. He felt dread when He thought of the cross. Doesn’t this bring you comfort? The Savior of the World knew what it felt like to ask, “God, are you sure it has to be this way? This painful? Does it have to be this hard?”
And because of His heart in submission to His Father’s perfect will, He denied Himself. He allowed Himself to go through the ultimate relational rejections, He gave Himself up and He died the most terrible death even though He never sinned.
And God is asking us to trust His heart, too. He is all-powerful and He could change everything in an instant. So when He doesn’t do what we wish He would, do we doubt His goodness or do we trust His heart?
So many things can make us question His goodness:
The tragic death of a small child due to cancer in the bones.
The family forced out of their homes and their countries because of their religion.
The husband who left his wife with the children and the mortgage with no warning.
Disease, adultery, abuse, loss of income; it all makes us wonder why God doesn’t always intervene. Is this really your will, God? All of this pain?
The enemy loves when we doubt God’s goodness and that was His first and only plan in the Garden of Eden – to convince Eve and Adam that God was withholding goodness from them. The enemy is quite pathetic and his lies are always the same. They are always birthed from the motivation to convince you to question God’s goodness and love. But we have to come back to the truth that nothing happens on earth that hasn’t had to pass through God’s sovereign hand. So we have to take that doubt, wrestle with it, beat on His chest as we cry, and rest on His chest as we sob, because we are finite and we don’t see the greater picture. He always does what is best even when we cannot see. And this place is a reminder that we long for our home in heaven, that our free will subjects us to sin, and that we will someday see everything as it should be.
And Jesus knows this better than anyone.
Yet Jesus only did what His Father was doing and only said what His Father was saying. He was aware of His need to draw strength from the Father in continual prayer. He knew He couldn’t do it alone. His flesh would fail.
Jesus was fully human and fully God and we see in His humanity how much He needed His Father in order to stay in perfect peace.
I think the enemy’s best strategy today is to busy us and convince us that prayer isn’t necessary for us because he knows it’s the fuel of our faith. I think he actually convinces us to try to derive our energy from other humans more than anything else. Have you ever heard the quote, “have you prayed about it as much as you’ve talked about it?”
It’s so true! We tend to panic. We call a friend or even write a blog or a social media post asking for feedback before we stop everything and seek God’s heart on the matter!
But Jesus is our best example because He knew how to pour out and then withdraw in order to be strengthened, in order to be filled up to be poured out again. He knew prayer was His source of strength in order to be a source of strength and encouragement to others. He knew He couldn’t get that from others.
I’ve heard people say that prayer is for us, not for God. And yes we understand that God doesn’t need us. But He desperately wants us. God created us for His pleasure, which means He wants to speak to us and He wants to hear from us because any loving relationship deeply desires a rhythm of reciprocated closeness.
I love studying the habits of Jesus and how He prayed to the Father and created space for that quiet, but I also like observing how Jesus dialogued with others. Prayer isn’t always getting on your knees next to the bed although that is quite beautiful. Prayer can be a constant conversation with Jesus where we can ask questions and so does He. Most of my prayer life feels like I am always having a neverending conversation with Jesus, full of commas and dot dot dots. Like a journal entry that never signs off. It is the only relationship that is near to me at all times, a constant, a presence, and a comfort.
Jesus knows every struggle we face because He faced them all Himself. Jesus shows us where to turn, and that is to the Father. We are called to follow His lead. We can pray to the Father, the Creator, Maker of all things who knit us together in our mother’s womb, who numbered the hairs on our head, who hears every prayer and every thought, who cares about us more than we care about ourselves, who delights to give us the Kingdom, and if we just dared to ask, is pleased to bring heaven here on earth by filling us up to pour us back out.
I recommend listening to this song today for reflection: