Pray, Never Quit, Like Jesus: You may also have a garden of Gethsemane experience
Matthew 26:39 He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”
40 Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “What! Could you not watch with Me one hour? 41 Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
2. How many of you like quitters? None of us do! It’s like you are in a soccer game, or you are at a party and someone with you says, “I’m out! See you later!” Everyone says, “No, we need you now more than ever, don’t quit!” but the quitter quits anyway! This causes his team to lose leaving his friends to miss out on victory. People that don’t follow through are like clouds with no rain, just there good for nothing!
Those that quit on God are described here in Jude 8 (b) They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots;
Today I want you as a Christian to see how you and I, as Jesus, also may have our moments of despair and we really want to quit, to abort the mission, but if we are doing God’s assignments you and I know we cannot fail or quit! We keep on in the ‘strength of the Lord’!
The only way to get through a hard trial is to pray and pray long, intensely, and openly, open to do what God wants you to do even though you do not want to do it! Jesus could have quit, but He didn’t. He was chosen to die for our sins, and He knew He had to go through it, but knowing what He went through, we can all understand Him not wanting to have to do it! And on a cross!
3. Do you ever pray… “Nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will?” That is a very hard thing to pray! It is often easy to pray, oh Lord bless me with a new car, bless me with more income, but how many times do you hear a person pray, Lord do unto me all you need to do to make me be the instrument you need me to be?
When you pray, Lord, give me car, any old car Lord, what happens? You end up, as your faith expected, with some old car! But when you pray you must believe! But exercise great faith!
Mark 11:24 Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.
I have known people who have said to me, “Never pray for humility, don’t pray for God to do with you what He wants to because usually it means you will start going through a big trial and problem!” But actually, trails and problems are what we are supposed to go through in this life so you and I get purified! It’s like a fire refining the gold, so we learn meekness and obedience. But those who resist God’s breakings, those who quit early, those who jump off the mountain not finishing the climb, guess what? God makes you do a repeat until you finish the task and get it right! Each time it gets tougher so we must pray we get it right the first time!
4. Obedience is a tough word but we must learn it as Jesus did. Hebrews 5:8 though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. 1 Peter 4: 12 Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial, which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; 13 but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.
When a Christian has a trial and life or death type moment, it has a purpose and God helps you to get through it for the victory, so you praise Him. When you have had to be in a corner without a seeming exit, when you have felt that it was the end, it is then you somehow experience that God gets you through it. There is no triumphant crown without a test! 1 Corinthians 10:13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
Jesus had to suffer beyond what any of us can comprehend! Compared to His suffering and death on the cross, anything we have to go through seems to be ‘not so bad’! He sweat blood sweat and tears! But I know that despairing feeling when some trials make you feel like you are at the end of everything! I felt that way when I had 106 temperature with hepatitis, when a truck almost ran us off a cliff, and when depressed and discouraged several times!
5. Here is another lesson we can learn from what Jesus experienced in Gethsemane, that He needed his friends beside Him, to support him. Why did he get bothered when the disciples just went to sleep like they did like they didn’t care? Because He wanted them near in His time of despair!
When you experience something terrible, when a traumatic event grips you, don’t you want someone with you to support you? Sometimes they don’t even need to say a word, you just need them by you to help you to not be alone in your pain.
And, are you willing to be with someone when they are going through pain and suffering? I know it is no fun as I have done it a lot! When you unexpectedly have a serious issue in your life, do you have someone you can go to that will be with you, pray for you, and not let you be alone? 2 Corinthians 1:4 who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
6. Here is another point, Jesus already knew Peter would deny him, He knew His disciples would be shocked, scared, and shaken up by His death, so he wanted to warn them this… “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Jesus needs us to learn to ‘watch and pray’! And what was the temptation he knew was coming at that time? To be doubting Him, like Thomas did, to be abandoning the mission, like Peter and his fishermen disciples did, who went right back to fishing instead of preaching the gospel after His death. We need to learn to pray without ceasing!
People that get distant from Jesus, that get distant from you and me, the followers of Jesus, start getting temped and entangled with the things of this world and they become useless to God. 2 Peter 2:20 For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning.
7. Jesus knew His hour to be betrayed, arrested, and crucified was coming in the early morning. He wanted the last hours of His life with His disciples nearby. He knew when he was going to die, but how many of us know when you are I are going to die? Most of us don’t know the hour that a car wreck, a heart attack, or an infection might grip us with death, and then what? It is too late for anything then! Love everyone today…tomorrow you may not get the chance!
That is why you and I must live ready to go, ready to stay, ready to do God’s will no matter what it is! How wonderful it will be to die in peace, assured that you knew Him, that you are connected to Him, assured that you did your best for Him, that you gave your all, and that you practiced what you learned from Jesus’ teachings.
Thank God Jesus took upon Himself our sins, we know we could never be assured of eternal life by trying to be perfect in our own way. Even with obedience to all the Old Testament commands, we would never be perfect enough for God. And it is in God’s mercy we go through some hard times so we become depend on Him for everything, for peace of mind, for provisions and good health.
8. The oldest book in the Bible is Job. How many of you know what he suffered? He was blessed by God, had a nice family, good health, lots of herds and riches. But God allowed him to be tempted, to go through suffering because God knew that Job loved Him and that he would resist and come through as a shining example for the angels, Satan, and all the world for generations to learn that to stay faithful to God does have its reward! He lost his health, wealth, and family murdered, all in one day!
Never let yourself be vulnerable to doubt God, never give up, always know that God will bless those that go through hard trials trusting in Him. Job said this, Job 13:15
Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him. Job 42: 12 So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses.
We learn so much from Jesus, that He wants us to never give up and to be obedient to God’s will, submitting ourselves no matter what ‘our cup’ of suffering may be! We are to watch and pray and to be desperate and close to God when we are in excruciating times. We are to call upon faithful others to pray with us too! We must know we may be tempted to give up, or like in Job’s case, his wife even said you are so miserable just curse God so you can die to end it all!
Never listen to the voices from Satan, through your ‘friends’ or in your own head. Watch & Pray and you will get the victory and come out of the trial with a testimony of how you got through your Gethsemane experience!
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