Gethsemane

04/10/2020

It's interesting how your prayer life evolves over time. As a child I remember praying that I could be in the NBA, not get in trouble from my parents, and live in a mansion. As a teenager it was that I could get a girlfriend, and then a few other things, and then more about girls. To an adult where prayers are often tracked by the season of life people I know of and myself are in. It's never fun when we are facing trials, but that does often yield some of our best prayers. I know some of the most powerful and moving prayers I have ever heard came from people in the midst of a trials.



When we think of trials there is so many different forms they take in our lives, but a common trial people face is when they or a loved one are faced with death. I want to ask you a question that will certainly be morbid at first glance but stick with me. What do you think your prayer life would look like right now if you knew that tomorrow you would be passing away? What type of things would you be praying for? Would you be more focused on yourself or others? Again, I acknowledge this is a heavy question, but I believe we have a perfect example of this in Jesus.



In John 17 Jesus is in Gethsemane and he knows exactly what awaits him the next day. He intentionally chooses to spend his last few free moments in prayer. I want to encourage you to begin this day (or whenever you are reading this) by reading John 17.



There is so much packed into this prayer of Jesus that I cannot truly unpack all of it. It is absolutely astounding to me however that instead of praying for his own (literal) trial that awaited him the next day that he prays for us. He does not utilize this time to ease his personal burdens, he uses it to pray earnest and heartfelt blessings over us. He prays that we could know God, that we would keep his word, that we would be united as one and that ultimately, we could be with Him forever. That is how he responded in prayer to the trial that awaited him.



This is important to us right now for so many reasons, first of all this shows us the heart and will of Jesus Christ for each of our lives. His will is not specific to when things are good or things are bad, His will is for our entire lives to be concerned with those requests. So, my prayer is that a reminder of that can encourage and challenge you at the same time, because I know that I certainly need that right now. The second takeaway that is timely I believe is to imitate the way Jesus prays even though he is in the midst of a trial. Jesus takes this opportunity and his time here to pray for others. I believe that was intentional and was an example of what we ought to do. Rather I know you or not, please feel free to share with me and or our church family anything we can be praying for you because we would love to be praying for you right now. We don't have to head to a garden, in fact it's probably safer if we don't but we all have an opportunity today to get down on our knees and imitate the prayer life of our Lord and Savior.