As I reflect on Christ’s journey to the cross, I cannot begin to imagine the emotions Jesus must have felt in the last days. After Jesus and his disciples celebrated the Last Supper in the upper room, He took Peter, James and John to the Garden of Gethsemane to spend time in prayer. After asking his closest disciples to pray with Him, Jesus went off into the olive grove to spend time in prayer for what He was about to experience. After spending an hour in prayer, Jesus came back to find the disciples asleep. After encouraging them to pray for themselves, Jesus went back to pray. Again, Jesus returned the second time to find the disciples fast asleep. Christ returned to pray for the third time.
So why did Jesus take the disciples to pray with Him in the Garden of Gethsemane? Did Jesus need his friends to pray for Him? I believe Jesus, the Master Teacher, was teaching the disciples even in his last days. Jesus knew what was to come in the upcoming days. Jesus gained reaffirmation of his mission on earth. He was trying to teach the disciples about prayer by His example.
In his book Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster puts prayer in the proper framework. “We pray so that we can align ourselves with the will of God. We pray so that God can mold us into his likeness. We pray so that we can be changed."
To pray is to change. Prayer is the central avenue God uses to transform us. If we are unwilling to change, we will abandon prayer as a noticeable characteristic of our lives. The closer we come to the heartbeat of God the more we see our need and the more we desire to be conformed to Christ….prayer, real prayer, we begin to think God’s thoughts after Him: to desire the things He desires, to love the things He loves. Progressively we are taught to see things from His point of view.”
May we be transformed into Christ’s likeness as we approach Good Friday and Easter.
-Andy
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