When Jesus Prayed!

Well, the blog got a new look.  What do you think?  It seems a little easier to read now.  The hot pink background might have been a little hard on the eyes.  I hope you had a great weekend and are looking forward to great week!

We added 11 hens to our little flock this weekend.  (We had a few sad mishaps-dogs got 2 of our hens, and 2 just died....perhaps from egg binding.)  3 of our new hens are beautiful Domineckers.  The other 8 girls are Buff Orpingtons.  This gives us a total of 14, with a few more Rhode Island Reds waiting to be picked up.  I know you probably know this about me already, but I LOVE my chickens. (Pictures coming soon!)

Saturday afternoon we visited with our 80 year old neighbors for more than an hour.  They are just precious.  The wife, Jonell, has cancer and has just finished 5 months of chemotherapy.  She was so positive and just has a joy that only comes from the Lord.  The crazy thing is that we have lived here for 2 years and are just now meeting them.  My girls asked if they could bring them Christmas cookies one afternoon when they visited a few of our other neighbors.  Of course, I thought it was a great idea.  We have wasted two years that we could have been enjoying fellowship with Christian friends and hearing interesting stories of their past.  Lesson learned! 

It is Monday and we are back to school today after a week and a half off....I AM READY!!!  I love schedule and routine.  It makes me so happy!  How about you?  Is your happy place fully scheduled or are you happy when you can just go with the flow?  Getting up might have been easier though if it was not 25°.  Where you are that might not be cold, but here in Texas, that is just unacceptable!

Because my dear friend, Jessica Honc, loves me and knew I would need today to get back in the swing of homeschooling, she wrote the post for today.  Hope you enjoy and join me again tomorrow! 

Jessica Honc

 

“Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me.  Yet I want your will, not mine.” Luke 22:42.

Most of us are familiar with areas of the gospel where Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray before he was betrayed and arrested.  I sometimes read through my bible too quickly (don’t judge)  & I had never really paid attention to the fact that Jesus prayed not once, not twice, but three times to his father.

Scripture says when he went to pray, he became filled with extreme anguish and deep distress, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death…..” Matthew 26:38a

I have been waiting for God to show me why this scripture has stuck with me the past week.  I have been waiting for that awe inspiring moment when the deepest, behind the scenes information is revealed solely to me, but that moment was imaginary & hasn’t happened.  

There was no deep, hidden message for me to discover from this scripture.  This scripture gives a simple message to us all:  Jesus fully understands your sufferings, for he suffered them too.  

He understands your loneliness “Then he returned to the disciples and found them asleep.  He said to Peter, “Couldn’t you stay awake and watch with me even one hour?” Matthew 26:40

He understands your anguish, “…He was in such agony of spirit that his sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood.”   Luke 22:44.

He understands the greatest of temptations “Then Jesus was led out into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit to be tempted there by the Devil.” (For 40 days and nights straight y'all!) Matthew 4:1.

He understands frustration, “And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves;” Mark 11:15.

He understands physical pain beyond anything we can ever conceive.

He understands betrayal. “but Jesus asked him, "Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?" Luke 22:48

He understands every human issue we have. “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us….” John 1:14a

He is the best friend who can truly say, “I know exactly how you feel.”  He stands with you through any suffering and temptation you face. “Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.” Hebrews 2:18  

He prayed in the garden over and over again.  He pleaded to His Father for the suffering which was about to come to be taken from him.  Yet with each prayer he also agreed to follow through with what His Father had planned for him.

We pray and pray the same prayer over and over again sometimes, only to succumb to the fact that we are not in control and God sees the bigger picture.  “Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning.” Psalm 30:5b.

We are the creation of a sovereign God full of mercy and love who sees the bigger picture.  He is the provider of everything we need for victory over suffering, temptation and death. Don’t cease in your prayers.  God does hear you.  But, whether you are praying for strength to go on, praying for a way out of the darkness of an addiction, praying for the pain to leave, praying for a sign to move forward, praying for a loved one to come to the Lord or praying for any other human condition, be sure to also pray as Jesus did; agree to acknowledge that His will, will be done and use your time in prayer as an opportunity to draw closer to God.

“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”  John 1:5