Pray until something happens; Luke 22: 39 – 46
notes of a Sermon for Sunday 07/05/06 @ 6pm
“Yet not my will, but yours be done”.
I wear three wrist bands; the fish symbol of Christianity together with ‘WWJD’ – What would Jesus do? & ‘PUSH’ – Pray until something happens. To me, the wrist bands are a constant reminder of who I am and what God has made me. Jesus had no need of trinkets to remind Him of who he was as He stood constantly before God, His will surrendered to His Father, His creator; His life, the body of divinity here on earth. Like many of us I forget the necessity for prayer until something happens to remind me that I stand in constant need of God, His works, His love, His peace and continual understanding of my need. On that one occasion, at the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives, Jesus knew that He had to pray until something happened, that He, like us, stood in the need of God, so much so that He sweat drops of blood as He prayed. God knowing that Jesus needed He love, His peace and continual understanding of His need for that moment. Jesus knew of the terrible agony that He would have to endure, not only the terror and horror of crucifixion, but also His total separation from God in order for the world to live as He died for all its sin. He had asked the disciples to pray that they wouldn’t be overcome by temptation, perhaps that the events that would follow would tempt them, test them and try them; He knew that they would see Him die. Would those events destroy the faith they had in Him? We are so often overcome by our own temptations that we are tested and tried. A song written by Jennifer Atkinson and Robin Mark puts our lives into perspective. “Jesus, all for Jesus
All I am and have
And ever hope to be All of my ambitions, hopes and plans
I surrender these into your hands
All of my ambitions, hopes and plans
I surrender these into your hands For its only in your will that I am free
For its only in your will that I am free Jesus, all for Jesus
All I am and have
And ever hope to be” Life rushes in and overtakes us, we stand alone, or so we think. But God requires us to give everything we have and are to Him, our ambitions, hopes and plans, surrender all that we have and are to His will. Fall before Him with our lives, giving all we have to His resurrected life, then and only then will we ever find the freedom that Jesus died for, giving us a living relationship with Him as God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The disciples lost heart and fell asleep as Jesus prayed and sweat blood, as He agonised before God His own tribulations; as He agonised before God with the concerns of the world, so much so that something happened – redemption for all. The writer of the letter to the Hebrews says in chapter 12: 3 & 4, “Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. In your struggle against sin, you have not resisted to the point of shedding blood.” So lets remind ourselves, “What would Jesus do?” – “Pray until something happens.” Amen.
By Jonathan Salter
© 2006