I heard a great sermon a few Sunday’s ago about prayer- entitled “Jesus prays”
(Yes, it was quite a few weeks ago… it’s taken me some time to process through what I learned!)
This sermon was very convicting…
And I wanted to share with you what I learned… hopefully it will open your eyes as it has opened mine.
It talks about in Mark 14:32-42…..
That Jesus is in Gethsemane, the night before he is taken to be tried and later crucified! He goes there with three of his closest disciples to pray. He leaves the disciples to pray and he goes a little bit further to pray alone.
For you see Jesus being God and all knowing, he already knows what’s going to happen… that he will be arrested…he knows that it’s going to be painful… he knows that his disciples will deny him… he knows he’ll be beaten… mocked… scourged… he knows he will take on the sins of the world… (yes your sins and mine!!!)…he knows that the father is going to forsake him… he knows he will die on the cross… that he will rise again…
He does this all willing… out of his love for us….
And yet he doesn’t do what most of us mere humans would typically do… and think this is going to be something big… I need to “rest up…” or let me go “have a little fun”…
No…. what does he do?!?
He takes his closest friends/his family if you will, and they go and pray!
Pray… let me say that again… PRAY!
Now let me ask you… what’s your gut reaction to something bad happening/trying to figure out something/a big decision/any decision?!?
I know my first reaction a lot of the time is the typical worldly reaction… I can solve it!!! My problem solving brain goes to work… What can I do? How can this be solved? Maybe if I do this or so and so does this…
Or for something bad… how can this be happening? That’s not fair?!? How do I get justice! Why me?
Or even the small decisions… well God doesn’t care about that… or why should I waste God’s time? Isn’t this too small of a decision to ask the Lord… he’s got better things to do?!?
Sometimes we… well I know I struggle with thinking, the Lord doesn’t care about the day to day or the small decisions…
But the more I’m realizing is that if we go to him in prayer… with everything, it’s less about us complaining and wining … and more about us, focusing on sharing our lives and our struggles, our hopes and dreams…
How can you have a relationship with someone if you don’t spend time with them?!? How do you develop feeling and love on each other, if you don’t first get to know and then cultivate those feelings!
Spending time in prayer (and in the Bible) is our time with the Lord! Our communication with our father, it came at quite a price, but we’re now forgiven and free to communicate openly verbally or non verbally with the Lord!
Why do I take such a gift for granted and tend to only use it as a last resort or an after thought?!?
So I’m making this a spiritual goal for this year to work on my communication through prayer with the Lord, to spend time with him, cultivating that relationship, to not make prayer a last resort, but the FIRST ACTION!
Please consider being part of this prayer movement! Please notify me if you would like a prayer card, which has specific prayer requests for these next 11 months! You can comment below or email me at [email protected] and I’ll send you a prayer card. Thanks for joining me and keeping me in your prayers!
Also, if you would like to listen to the full sermon about prayer where the statements ( of making prayer a priority, to pray specifically, to pray submissively, to pray persistently, and to pray expectantly! ) were pointed out, click on the link below!
http://www.verticalcharleston.org/sermons/
(The sermon is from July 15,2018; entitled “Jesus Prays”)
