Bekah (from The Wally Show) tells a story about one of the darkest times she cried out to God.
Read (from the New Living Translation)
Jesus felt utterly lonely, tormented, burdened, betrayed, in pain, dreading what was happening. He gets it more than we will ever know. But notice… He kept on praying! “Not my will, but yours…” We see this in today’s reading.
Luke 22:39-53
Then, accompanied by the disciples, Jesus left the upstairs room and went as usual to the Mount of Olives. There he told them, “Pray that you will not give in to temptation.”
He walked away, about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, “Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” Then an angel from heaven appeared and strengthened him. He prayed more fervently, and he was in such agony of spirit that his sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood.
At last he stood up again and returned to the disciples, only to find them asleep, exhausted from grief. “Why are you sleeping?” he asked them. “Get up and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation.”
But even as Jesus said this, a crowd approached, led by Judas, one of the twelve disciples. Judas walked over to Jesus to greet him with a kiss. But Jesus said, “Judas, would you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?”
When the other disciples saw what was about to happen, they exclaimed, “Lord, should we fight? We brought the swords!” And one of them struck at the high priest’s slave, slashing off his right ear.
But Jesus said, “No more of this.” And he touched the man’s ear and healed him.
Then Jesus spoke to the leading priests, the captains of the Temple guard, and the elders who had come for him. “Am I some dangerous revolutionary,” he asked, “that you come with swords and clubs to arrest me? Why didn’t you arrest me in the Temple? I was there every day. But this is your moment, the time when the power of darkness reigns.”
Note: If you’ve read the Bible before, you may notice there are no chapter or verse marks in today’s reading. We got this idea from the Immerse Bible. They’ve taken the entire story of Jesus and stripped it of all distractions – this way it’s a more relaxed read. Like you’re reading a beautiful story. You should check it out!
