GOD Morning! August 31, 2016 / Gethsemane? No Thank You!

GOD Morning!  August 31, 2016

Gethsemane? No Thank You!

Luke 22:39-46

The Garden of Gethsemane

³⁹ And He came out and went, as was His habit, to the Mount of Olives; and the disciples followed Him. ⁴⁰ When He arrived at the place [called Gethsemane], He said to them, “Pray continually that you may not fall into temptation.” ⁴¹ And He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, ⁴² saying, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup [of divine wrath] from Me; yet not My will, but [always] Yours be done.” ⁴³  Now an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him. ⁴⁴ And being in agony [deeply distressed and anguished; almost to the point of death], He prayed more intently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down on the ground. ⁴⁵ When He rose from prayer, He came to the disciples and found them sleeping from sorrow, ⁴⁶ and He said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you may not fall into temptation.”

We must each face our Garden of Gethsemane experience. We must die to the flesh and embrace pain and suffering. Oh yeah I know how it is; we tell ourselves, “I am most definitely not Jesus. He was asked to die on a cross. I was not asked to suffer as He did.” But the fact is this. We are all called to take up our cross and follow Jesus. All the way to Calvary. This is not a pleasant thought. I believe we are all being called to Gethsemane to moan, to groan and to say yes. But only a few will actually get down on our knees and pray, “Please take this cup from me; nevertheless, Thy will be done!

If we truly understood the fact that this life is a vapor, then we would truly understand that we must embrace suffering in order to be Jesus to the suffering world that we live in.

I know that this is tough to swallow. I don’t like this bitter pill either. Trust me, I have been resisting this Gethsemane encounter. Pretty much all of my life I have been pushing back hard! I say not now, maybe later! And Jesus and I both know that what I really mean is never! I am hoping that if I try not to think about the Gethsemane tug, maybe it will go away. And today, right now, I am having a light bulb experience. I will never be fulfilled in this life. Not ever. Until I have my personal Gethsemane encounter with Almighty God and say “Nevertheless, Thy will be done.” Ahhhhh. This is hard to face right now.

“Dear precious, wounded and bleeding Jesus, I must beg Your forgiveness. I joyfully embrace You hanging there on the cross for my salvation. I worship and praise You for it! And yet I hang back when You ask me to say yes to suffering for You. I say yes to Your blessings. I say yes to singing for You. I say yes to teaching a Bible study. I say yes to feeling Your sweet presence. But I dig my heels in when it comes to Gethsemane. What is it going to take for me to go to Gethsemane with You? Oh, God, my heart hurts because I am hanging back once again. I must groan and travail right now. Help me Jesus, I am begging You. AMEN.”