“Jesus faced his ultimate fear with prayer…
Let’s not overcomplicate this topic. Don’t we do so? We prescribe words for prayer, places for prayer, clothing for prayer, postures for prayer, durations, intonations, and incantations. Yet Jesus’ garden appeal had none of these. It was brief (twenty-six English words), straightforward (‘Please take this cup of suffering away’), and trusting (‘Yet I want your will to be done, not mine’). Low on slick and high on authentic…
Jesus’ garden prayer is a child’s prayer…
His prayer in the garden becomes, for Christians, a picture of the church in action – a place where fears can be verbalized, pronounced, stripped down, and denounced; an escape from the “wordless darkness” of suppressed frights. A healthy church is where our fears go to die. We pierce them through with Scripture, psalms of celebration and lament. We melt them in the sunlight of confession. We extinguish them with the waterfall of worship, choosing to gaze at God, not our dreads.”
from the book Fearless by Max Lucado
When is the last time you took your fears to God instead of playing them over and over in your mind? Prayer is a beautiful thing. We must be diligent and intentional and not give up. Fervent prayer is the tool we’ve been given with which to extinguish the fiery darts of the enemy!
I love this picture of Jesus praying in the garden. It has long been one of my favorite scenes from God’s Word. We see the humanity of Jesus perfectly mingled with the almighty power of God the Father. We see His heart…and we recognize ourselves a little bit.
Haven’t we asked God to take this cup from us? Have we not begged for things to be different? Have we not agonized and wondered where God was?
Yet the next line of the prayer is where we need to focus our hearts…
“Not my will, but Yours be done.”
That may very well be the hardest prayer we will ever pray here on earth. Yet, when we come to a place that we can truthfully claim those words in prayer to God, our hearts will never be the same.
When we want God’s will more than our own, we become more selfless.
When we want God’s will more than our own, we have true peace.
When we want God’s will more than our own, our fears are diminished.
When we want God’s will more than our own, we are walking by FAITH and not by sight.
When we want God’s will more than our own, we are fixing our eyes on what is eternal, not on what is seen.
Let us pray with fervency for trusting hearts that walk by faith and not by sight.
More from Fearless
- What if Faith Was Our Default?
- An Unstirred Christ
- A Greenhouse of Prayer
- Look Into the Storm
- Keep Your Gaze on Jesus
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