Then Jesus brought them to a garden grove, Gethsemane, and told them to sit down and wait while he went on ahead to pray. He took Peter with him and Zebedee's two sons James and John, and began to be filled with anguish and despair.
Then he told them, "My soul is crushed with horror and sadness to the point of death . . . stay here . . . stay awake with me."
He went forward a little, and fell face downward on the ground, and prayed, "My Father! If it is possible, let this cup be taken away from me. But I want your will, not mine."
Then he returned to the three disciples and found them asleep. "Peter," he called, "couldn't you even stay awake with me one hour? Keep alert and pray. Otherwise temptation will overpower you. For the spirit indeed is willing, but how weak the body is!"
Again he left them and prayed, "My Father! If this cup cannot go away until I drink it all, your will be done."
He returned to them again and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy, so he went back to prayer the third time, saying the same things again.
Then he came to the disciples and said, "Sleep on now and take your rest . . . but no! The time has come! I am betrayed into the hands of evil men! Up! Let's be going! Look! Here comes the man who is betraying me!" Matthew 26:36-46
I was talking with a client the other day about surrender. The client was feeling down on themself because of a certain habit they were struggling to surrender. The client felt like a failure because it kept coming back up despite the desire to surrender. I talked with my client about how three times Jesus surrendered His will in the Garden of Gethsemane. If He needed three times, how much more so we need?
Jesus can sympathize with our struggle. It is not like He prayed and the desire was gone. Another one of the Gospels mentions the great anguish that Jesus was in, and that He sweat drops of blood. The struggle is real. This passage said "Jesus grieved to the point of death". That struggle is real. We can not allow condemnation to set in as we struggle to surrender the will of our flesh. The struggle is real. If Jesus went through it for His purpose to be fulfilled, we can almost guarantee that we will have the same struggle.
Jesus asked the disciples for help. Often we feel like asking for help makes us weak; Jesus was anything but weak. The struggle was real. He probably thought about the Old Testament Scripture
And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart. Ecclesiastes 4:12
Jesus took Peter, James and John. He left a threefold cord and asked them to pray, He wanted them to keep watch. He knew what He was about to face even if they didn't understand it.
There will be things we face in our lives that require us to collapse under the weight. We need to know who is in our corner that we can ask to stand watch and pray. Even that the disciples didn't know what Jesus was in need of, He asked them to be with Him. We don't always have to share the details, sometimes "pray and stay" while I pray is enough.
Surrender is difficult. The struggle is real. It is generally not a one and done type of thing. Instead, we keep going back
Lord, I know I need to allow people into my inner circle like you did, so that I will have people to support me during the deep trials. For those already in my life. Help me to be that for others.
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