Saturday, March 29, 2014
Matthew 26:42-44 Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, "My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done." And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again.
GOD CHANGES THINGS
It has been said that "Prayer changes things." Actually, God changes things. Prayer doesn't change God, it changes us. It helps us to remember where our help comes from and who deserves our praise.
Did you notice the answer that Jesus received when He asked if His suffering could pass by? The Father's answer was "no." When it's said that "prayer changes things" it doesn't mean that if you pray long and hard and repeat yourself often enough that God will give you what you want. He knows what is best for you, and sometimes what you may want isn't what is best for you.
The answer Jesus received to His initial request was "no," but Jesus was not dissuaded or disappointed. On the contrary, His path was confirmed and His resolve strengthened.
We notice a change in Jesus. When He entered Gethsemane He was sorrowful and troubled even to death. After communing with the Father in prayer, He was strengthened and focused. He did not run or fear His suffering, but willingly submitted to it.
We can't help but notice how Jesus put our needs before His own. Where we are often self-centered and look out first for our own best interests, He put our need first. When Satan tempted Him to think first of Himself in the wilderness, He refused. When Peter suggested He need not go to the Cross, Jesus rebuked him. Even when alone with the weight of our sins upon Him in agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, in love He still put our need of forgiveness before His own well-being.
He did this so that we might never be left alone to bear our sins and suffer for them.
Then, for all that wrought my pardon, For Thy sorrows deep and sore,
For thine anguish in the Garden, I will thank Thee evermore,
Thank Thee for Thy groaning, sighing, For Thy bleeding and Thy dying,
For that last triumphant cry, And shall praise Thee, Lord, on high. Amen!
(The Lutheran Hymnal, 151:7)
