“He pulled away from them about a stone’s throw, knelt down, and prayed, 'Father, remove this cup from me. But please, not what I want. What do you want?' At once an angel from heaven was at his side, strengthening him. He prayed all the harder. Sweat, wrung from him like drops of blood, poured off his face.” Luke 22:41-44
Jesus came as God in the flesh, to be the messenger of God’s promise of salvation but also to walk in our human shoes. His identity as fully God and fully man was an act of profound love. God did not have to live as us to understand us, but he chose to take on the human condition so we might believe.
During Jesus' time on Earth, he walked through grief. In the days before his death on the cross, he slipped away to Mount Olive to seek his Father in prayer. He cried out with tears of desperation and blood, asking his Father to take this cup from him. Jesus lamented the painful yet purposeful road God had called him to. In his all-God and all-human self, he had to wrestle with his real, valid, and heavy sense of fear of what was to come. We each endure the same emotional journey as Jesus did when God calls us to deeper waters and requires a greater laying down of self for his glory.
The beautiful thing about this interaction between the Father and the Son is that God does not rebuke Jesus for his lament. He meets him in his moment of pain. The text says that he sent an angel to his side to strengthen him. This is grace. Grace is a friend willing to be at your side through the sorrow, a friend who does not minimize your real emotions but sits with you as you walk through them.
We sometimes feel like we need to put on our “big girl faith” for God, one that hides our real-life, and oftentimes, complicated emotions. Understand that sorrow over what we know a choice will cost is not disobedience; it's just a part of being human. We can feel many things at once: excitement, fear, faith, doubt, joy, and sorrow. God made us with a crazy array of feelings that we feel, and he understands our hearts even better than we do. We don’t have to be ashamed of our needs. We can boldly bring our whole basket of emotions to him and ask him to strengthen us on this journey.
Jesus was grieved, but he also was ready to do his Father’s work. He had to process his feelings in order to step into his destiny. He eagerly asked if God would change the future for him, but then he moved to ‘not my will, but yours be done’ (Luke 22:42, ESV). In our own lives, we can’t get stuck in our sorrow. We must bring our heartaches to God and then we once again surrender to his plan. Hard doesn't mean wrong in God’s Kingdom. Oftentimes, the most beautiful things that we do with our lives are the hardest things.
Jesus had to move past his fear and accept death on the cross in order to give us the most beautiful gift of salvation. It was ugly, scary, hard, and brutal yet entirely necessary for the purpose of God to be revealed to his people. Our lives often have the same journey of moving through sorrow, pain, and sacrifice in order to experience God’s miracle-working power in our lives.
Prayer
Father, we thank you that you understand all of who we are. You are not afraid of our sorrow, fear, pain, lament, and questions. When we need you, the Holy Spirit comes and gives us strength for the journey. I thank you that hard does not equal wrong, that you take the toughest moments in our lives and make something beautiful out of them. I ask that if we are in a moment of lament we would lay our feelings at your feet and then, by faith, ask that your will to be done. I pray we would trust you on the journey towards your purpose and plan unfolding for our lives. We thank you that you make beautiful things out of us. Amen.
Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/Elvira Podolinska
Related Resource: Instead of Doing More This Summer, Maybe You Need to Do Less
If you've been feeling tired, overwhelmed, depleted, or just quietly wondering where God is in the middle of a very full life — this episode is for you. And honestly? It might be for me too, because I'm recording this in one of those seasons myself.
Today we're doing something a little different. Instead of going deep in a passage, we're talking about what to do when deep feels like too much — when you need less, not more. Specifically, I'm walking you through one of my favorite practices for weary seasons: handwriting scripture.
Not typing it. Not scrolling past it. Actually writing it out, slowly, in your own hand — because something happens in your brain when you do that. The words land differently. They go deeper. And over time, they become part of that personal library of God's voice that the Holy Spirit can pull from when you need it most. That's what Psalm 119:11 means when it says I have hidden your word in my heart — it's scripture moving into your long-term memory, where it lives and stays even when you haven't opened your Bible in weeks.
I'm sharing the five verses I wrote out for myself today — and why each one hit me fresh even though I've known some of them for years. This episode is part of our How to Study the Bible Podcast, a show that brings life back to reading the Bible and helps you understand even the hardest parts of Scripture. If this episode helps you know and love God more, be sure to follow the How to Study the Bible Podcast on Apple or Spotify so you never miss an episode!
Originally published Friday, 26 July 2024.
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