Even though I am torn within, and my soul is in turmoil, I will not ask the Father to rescue me from this hour of trial. For I have come to fulfill my purpose — to offer myself to God. So, Father, bring glory to your name!” Then suddenly a booming voice was heard from the sky, “I have glorified my name! And I will glorify it through you again! John 12:27-28
Gethsemane literally means “oil press”! So much pressure on your soul. Been there? Felt that? Soul Agony? Have you known it? Soul Agony?
“The intense anguish and sorrow Jesus felt was certainly understandable. Being God, Christ knew “all that was going to happen to Him” (John 18:4). He knew in painstaking detail the events that were to follow soon after He was betrayed by one of His very own disciples. He knew He was about to undergo several trials where all of the witnesses against Him would lie. He knew that many who had hailed Him as the Messiah only days earlier would now be screaming for His crucifixion (Luke 23:23). He knew He would be flogged nearly to the point of death before they pounded the metal spikes into His flesh. He knew the prophetic words of Isaiah spoken seven centuries earlier that He would be beaten so badly that He would be “disfigured beyond that of any man” and “beyond human likeness” (Isaiah 52:14). Certainly, these things factored into His great anguish and sorrow, causing Him to sweat drops of blood.”Gotquestionsorg article
Before the Passover Festival, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. Now when it was time for supper, the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas, Simon Iscariot’s son, to betray him. Jesus knew that the Father had given everything into his hands, that he had come from God, and that he was going back to God. John 13:1-3
In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Because I live, you will live too. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, you are in me, and I am in you. The one who has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. And the one who loves me will be loved by my Father. I also will love him and will reveal myself to him. John 14:19-21
Don’t Want To Hear It? Compassion Fatigued? Not Open To Change? Want Your Way?
This is what the disciples did not want to hear, at all… they wanted Jesus to be a conqueror in this world, they did not understand. We do the same. Jesus wants us to step out into new things and we hold on to the old, yet God wants to bring in the new. It is a battle of understanding. We don’t want to grapple with God’s plan or God’s method’s of doing things, we want what we want and how we want it. We desperately cling to what we know, even when we hear the truth about what is new, we push it aside for what we are comfortable with, the old. We get stuck in the old because our comfort zone is all encompassing. Even if everything is changing all around us, we don’t step out of our comfort zone, this also goes for things in our lives that are very bad, we just chose to ignore them, hoping they will go away. We sleep when Jesus needs us the most and we need Him the most, just like the Disciples of Jesus Did in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus wept, they slept.
Then Jesus led his disciples to an orchard called “The Oil Press.” He told them, “Sit here while I go and pray nearby.” He took Peter, Jacob, and John with him. However, an intense feeling of great sorrow plunged his soul into agony. And he said to them, “My heart is overwhelmed and crushed with grief. It feels as though I’m dying. Stay here and keep watch with me.” Then he walked a short distance away, and overcome with grief, he threw himself facedown on the ground and prayed, “My Father, if there is any way you can deliver me from this suffering, please take it from me. Yet what I want is not important, for I only desire to fulfill your plan for me.” Then an angel from heaven appeared to strengthen him. Later, he came back to his three disciples and found them all sound asleep. He awakened Peter and said to him, “Could you not stay awake with me for even one hour? Keep alert and pray that you’ll be spared from this time of testing. Your spirit is eager enough, but your humanity is weak. Matthew 26:36-41
Beautiful Agony
It was a beautiful agony that Jesus grew through and when He left the Garden of Gethsemane, He was yielded completely to His Father’s Will for Him. His agony for our sins was about to begin and He was ready to pay the debt that we could not pay as the Father God would lay on Him the sins of the whole world. It was a beautiful agony that came out of a grand gesture of unconditional love, grace, and mercy of our Father God. We all deal with our soul agony at times, but never, never to the extent that our Savior took on. To say Jesus understands our soul agony is an understatement. Have you experienced soul agony? I have. Jesus understands, and in that way of His beautiful agony, He made a way for our soul to be healed. Listen Up To this 1 Minute Encouragement Video: Soul Wounds
Yield! Not My Will But Yours Be Done
There are times and seasons of hurt where our soul sheds many tears. God knows our tears will be temporary because of the beautiful agony He endured, our lives were transformed forever by His Gethsemane decision: “Not My Will, But Yours Be Done”. The human will of Jesus was broken, He was completely yielded to the will of His Father God. This is a place we need to struggle to get to as Jesus did, so much so that He sweat drops of blood, this is a stress like no other, and He willingly did this for us. Unto us He came, unto us He died, unto us He Rose again and defeated death. Death has no more voice because of the beautiful agony of Jesus Christ, our Savior, our Lord. Yield your soul agony to God and pray your tears will be temporary. God bless you.
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