Blessed Sunday to you all!  

We had a great day spent mostly with family. 

Prayer:  “Thank You for going to the Garden on my behalf.  Your struggle had eternal consequences for me.  Thank You for surrendering to the Father’s will.  Help me to surrender to Your will today. Amen.”

“He went a little father 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.”

Matthew 26: 39

This passage of scripture is one of the most powerful passages in the Bible.  It is the most human moment in the life of Jesus.  What would cause Jesus, to look into that cup and completely dissolve before God?  The moment Jesus began to pray I think the full realization of the last steps to the cross were fully revealed and He prayed, “Father, let this cup pass from me.” 

It do not think it was necessarily His death on the cross that was the sum total of what He discovered.  I think Jesus came into the full realization of the sin of the world that God revealed to Him.  It was the combination of the pollution of seeing all of our sin, knowing that he would bear the weight of that sin, separation from God, His Father, and the horrors of the public humiliation and death that awaited Him that Jesus saw as He prayed. 

But the next sentence is our salvation, “Not My will, but Thy will be done.”  My friends, the battle was not won on the cross, but in the garden.  For just a few fleeting moments as Jesus understood the full weight that the cross would have to bear including the violation of His body, He did not want to surrender His final act of obedience to His Father.  For me, it is the most human moment in the life of Jesus.

We have all had garden moments in our lives.  Those moments offer us the opportunity to trust God with all we are and all we have believing in God’s love, mercy, grace and the assurance that God will work His perfect will in our lives just as he did for Jesus.  Here is the good news…Jesus died on the cross so we would never have to bear the weight of our own sin. In our most difficult moments, He will once again go in the garden before the Father to plead for us. Give thanks for the moments and the garden where Jesus meets us.

Take joy in the journey.  Wear comfortable shoes and get some sleep.  Count your blessings and say your prayers.  Love you all, Bruce, Gaylene, Geni and Travis.

Gcapplenotes@aol.com     

I am not moved by what I see. I am not moved by what I feel. I am only moved by what I believe and I believe God.