In the scriptures, we read about Jesus as He prayed in the garden, known as Gethsemane, at the foot of the Mount of Olives. He took three of his disciples with him and prayed there as He prepared for the next steps of His rescue mission. He encouraged Peter, James, and John to follow His example. He knew the temptations and trials they would face before and after His death and resurrection.
He prayed for them and for us.
He asked the Father to set believers apart from the world.
He asked to make us one, just as He and the Father are one
…so that the world may know God sent Jesus, His Son, to redeem us and through our lives He might be glorified.
Seeking God’s will throughout, Jesus asked His Father to remove this cup from Him and spare Him of the coming wrath. He prayed so desperately that the Bible says His sweat became like drops of blood. Luke’s account tells us an angel ministered to Him. Jesus returned to find the disciples sleeping for sorrow. He repeated His call to them to pray.
Do: Step into the garden. Take in the beauty around you while you imagine you are one of the disciples. How does this setting make you feel? Take this time to do as Jesus did and pray to God the Father. Imagine how the disciples felt as they listened to Jesus pray and wondered about all He had told them at the Last Supper.
Reflect & Engage: Christ’s death would once and for all defeat Satan and the curse of sin in our lives, but that serpent still roams the Earth seeking to destroy us. The scene in the garden reminds us of Jesus’ time of temptation when the Holy Spirit led Him to seek out the serpent for a rematch in the desert. Jesus as the new and final Adam won the victory using the Sword of the Spirit, God’s word. He provided believers two ways to walk through the valleys of life:
1. He quoted scripture against the fiery arrows of that serpent, Satan.
2. Before acting, He spent time in prayer with His Father in Heaven.
The Father didn’t take the cup away, but He sent Jesus what He needed: the comfort and strength for those next steps. God’s answers to our prayers are subject to His will The Bible tells us in 1 John 5:14, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.”
Prayer Starter Father God, Comfort us when the answers to our prayers are confusing or disappointing. We know You love us and want the best for us. We may not always know why You answer our prayers a certain way, but we trust Your plan for us. Thank you, Jesus, for praying for us in those last hours that we might hear the Gospel message and become part of Your family.
Jesus prays in the Garden called Gethsemane
Luke 22:39-46 And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. And when he came to the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. And when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow,and he said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.”
John 17:20-23 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”
The Waiting Room 