Today's readings are: Psalms 107:1-43, Jere 23:1-8, Rom 8:28-39, & John 6:52-59
The Stations of the cross are our theme as we approach these last few days of Lent and enter into Holy Week. You can read yesterday's blog if you are not familiar with the Stations of the Cross.
At the first Station of the Cross we encounter Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane
The Scripture Reading:
"Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, "Sit here while I go over there and pray." He took along Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to feel sorrow and distress. Then he said to them, "My soul is sorrowful even to death. Remain here and keep watch with me." He advanced a little and fell prostrate in prayer, saying, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet, not as I will, but as you will." When he returned to his disciples he found them asleep. He said to Peter, "So you could not keep watch with me for one hour? Watch and pray that you may not undergo the test. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."
Matthew 26:36-41
I don't know if you encounter this idea of flesh the same way I do. I had one of those days yesterday in which my prayers were more whining than anything else. I came to God with a litany of discouragements and disappointments...from unanswered (perceived) prayers to a sense of "why God didn't/don't you..." things.
Don't get me wrong, it felt good to unload the pent up frustrations, and I'm positive that God is not that overly concerned with my humanity - he knows me. But, what I wanted to get out of it is unclear. Most certainly I suppose I hoped for immediate responses of jobs, healing, pain going away, difficulties solved, etc... But I'm realistic enough to know that all of those things are part of the choices I've made in living, and it's not true that God created my messes.
It's a powerful lesson for me/us to learn. We created our own lives with the choices we make. Some of those choices are not necessarily wise, and some of them are eventually going to be downright painful. Nevertheless, there isn't any sense in looking backwards in pity, or as a victim. Just as I made choices in the past, so I can make choices in the present that will affect the future.
Jesus made a choice. He made a choice to go to Jerusalem, and he made a choice to go the garden that evening. He made that choice knowing that his disciples did not understand all that was about to happen as a result. He made that choice for me!
A Prayer:
"Lord Jesus, I stand at the edge of the garden and I know that it is for me, and for the rest of humanity, that you have chosen to go there. You stepped into the dark of the night even as you entered into the darkness of humanity...deliberately, and as a servant, and that is what makes me worship you all the more. Thank you for your choice to love me, to love all of us, to the very end. Amen."
Romans 8:31-39 (NASB)
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?
32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?
33 Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies;
34 who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.
35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36 Just as it is written, "For Your sake we are being put to death all day LONG; We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered."
37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.
38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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