Photo Credit: Roger Gordon
Creative Commons

I have always been amazed by the story in the bible where Jesus asked His disciples to stay awake with Him, while He prayed in the garden, just before going the cross. He told them to watch and to pray so that they, too, would not fall into temptation. “The Spirit is willing but the flesh is week”, Jesus said.

During the most trying time of Jesus’s life His closest friends (the Apostles that he had chosen) were not able stay awake. The intense spiritual opposition that surrounded them (and Jesus) that day was more then they could bare. This was something new for them. They had been around Jesus before as He prayed, but this was different. The darkness that day caused them to become heavy with sleep.

So intense was this moment that as Jesus took His prayer posture (kneeing down) a stones through away, He prayed three times that the cup of suffering that He as about to go through be taken from Him. “If it be possible’ He said, “ Let this cup pass, yet not my will but yours be done.” He prayed until His drops of blood appeared on His forehead. At this point the battle had been won. He knew that the Fathers will for Him would be to die on the cross to redeem mankind from sin. Even though it meant being separated from the Father, Jesus knew what had to be done. And He did it!

We know that it is the Father’s good pleasure to give us the Kingdom. ( Luke 12:32) And that the Lord’s plans for us are for good and not for evil to give us a future and a hope. (Jer. 29:11)

Facing battles today? Why not spend an hour with the Lord and talk things through? Seek higher ground in the Spirit as He leads you to the Rock that is Higher than I. (Psalm 61:2)

~ Dan Ecker