I’ve been a
Christian for almost fifty years. I’ve
done a lot of praying over those years.
I can’t tell you the number of people for whom I’ve prayed for all their
cancer cells to miraculously die and for their health to be restored. I’ve diligently prayed for certain souls to
turn to God. I’ve begged God for doors
to open for a certain blessing. If I
could remember every prayer I’ve prayed and calculate the number of times I got
what I asked in prayer, I would have to conclude that prayer doesn’t work. Prayer isn’t given as a magical remedy to the
part of life that I don’t accept. God
doesn’t bid us to pray so that we can order up our wishes like we choose a
snack from a vending machine. Rather
prayer is about intimate connection.
The
greatest prayer that was ever prayed was from the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus came there to ask God, His Father, for
something very specific. He asked in
great faith. He believed that God could
answer His prayer. He certainly was
intense in prayer, evidenced by the blood His body sweated. He didn’t give up on His request, repeating
it three times. If ever there was a
perfect prayer, it was this prayer. Did
it work? Did Jesus’ humble, righteous
request change the outcome of His life?
If you look
at Jesus’ prayer in the garden from the perspective of getting what He prayed
for, then you would have to label His prayer a disaster. Not only did His request get denied,
ironically it was denied while He was praying.
As He knelt in prayer for the third time, He saw His captors coming to
arrest Him and take Him to the cross. He
stood up to face exactly what He was asking God to take away.
If you look
at Jesus’ prayer in the garden from the perspective of getting what He prayed
for, then you have to label His prayer a disaster.
If you
understand prayer as an intimate connection from a soul on earth surrounded by
spiritual darkness and the God of heaven possessed by eternal light, then you
could only conclude that Jesus’ prayer worked out the disconnect between heaven
and earth. His prayer brought power,
light, insight, and willingness into the dark events of the cross. His prayer brought down from heaven the light
of salvation for hopeless and lost sinners for as long as there is time in this
universe.
The prayer
of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane was an explosion of God’s righteousness,
light and power into the world. Was
there ever a prayer more powerful than Jesus’ thrice repeated plea?
Mark 14:36: Abba, Father, he said, everything
is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you
will. Prayer that works every time is prayer that follows Jesus’
straightforward pattern.
1. Intimacy—Abba,
Father—He prayed. In this connotation He
was acknowledging the love, care, and confidence in the One to Whom He prayed.
2. Confidence—Everything
is possible for you—He shattered any doubt that God could do what He asked.
3. Honesty—Take
this cup from me—He was brutally honest about His soul’s desire.
4. Trust—Yet
not what I will, but what you will—He knew that He could trust God’s
perspective more than His own.
Did
Jesus’ prayer work? Let your own soul be
the judge of that.
Copyright © 2015. Deborah R Newman
teatimeforyoursoul.com All Rights
Reserved.
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