In the Garden

"And He withdrew from them about a stone's throw, and He knelt down and began to pray, saying,'Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not my will, but Yours be done.' " (Luke 22:41-42) I used to think that when Jesus said "this cup", He was mainly talking about the physical pain of the crucifixion. In recent years, I knew that He was more referring to the time when He took on the sin of the world and He would be experiencing God's wrath and be separated from His Father. Just this week, as I was studying this passage again, it hit me like a ton of bricks: Jesus experienced that separation from God so that I would NEVER have to!!!!! Just think about it: before we knew Christ, we were too blind to know what we were missing--- God's presence in our lives, but now that we have Him, we NEVER have to know what it's like to not have Him!!!!! Christ had never known what it was like to not have His Father; how devastating for Him to feel that loss!!!! I know that this separation from His Father was WAY MORE painful than any of the physical pain that He experienced on the cross!!!!!!! After all, while He was hanging on the cross, Jesus did not cry out, "My God, My God, why do I have to go through all this physical pain?" No, He cried out, "My God, My God, why have You FORSAKEN Me?" His agony was the separation from His Father!!!!!!! This separation was the reason He sweated blood when He was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane!!!!!! The Lord might ask us to endure physical suffering for His sake; indeed, some of His twelve disciples were even crucified for their faith! But NONE OF US ever have to experience being forsaken by the Almighty God!!!! Praise His glorious name!!!!

Now I want to encourage you that if you're in "the Garden", praying and either feeling like God isn't really there or that God won't want to be there because of what you've done, remember Christ's agony: He was separated from His Father so that we wouldn't ever have to be!!!!! Here's some promises for you: "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, Who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand." John 10:28-29 "For He Himself has said 'I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you.' " Hebrews 13:5b Lean on these promises as you can lean on a God who, because of Jesus, will ALWAYS be with you!!!!!!!