"Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done."
Luke 22:42
After warning His disciples to pray, Jesus withdrew from them and began top pray to His Father. Jesus never allowed His love for the ministry to exceed His love for His Father. Jesus maintained a personal, private and persistent prayer life.
“And He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and began to pray.”
Luke 22:41
How close does your walk with Jesus need to be? The answer may be found in your response to a very personal question, “How far can you throw a rock?” The distance is different for everyone, but make sure your prayer life never wanders farther away from Jesus than a stone’s throw. Why? The farther the disciples drifted from the personal Presence of Jesus, the more vulnerable they became to an attack of the enemy. The same thing will happen to you.
“Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus” is a song that came from the heart and pen of gospel singer and songwriter Helen Lemmel, She produced a hymnal used by evangelist Billy Sunday for over a decade. She led a women’s choral group that was an integral part of the great evangelist’s ministry. A hundred years later, her words provide a sense of direction for the contemporary church.
“Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.”
Helen Lemmel, 1863-1961
The private prayer life of Jesus sustained His personal intimacy with The Father, and it maintained the integrity of His public ministry for The Father. It will do the same for you. The turning point? Turn your eyes upon Jesus.
Brokenness is not caused, by colliding with the enemy. It is the result of aligning yourself with the will of God. When Jesus came into The Presence of His Father, He prayed to align His will with His Father’s will.
Prayer is a weapon of spiritual warfare and Jesus used it against the schemes of the enemy. Prayer is not the hidden trick of an escape artist. Prayer prepared Jesus to face what was coming His way, not to escape from it. Still, never be hesitant to bring your requests to The Father in prayer. Jesus did. You can too.
“Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from Me.”
v. 42a
Prayer doesn’t lead you to brokenness until your personal pride and preferences die. “MY” will must die before it is resurrected into “THY” will. This is the power of the resurrection. You will never experience the power of the resurrection without entering into a life of brokenness. Jesus described it as,
“Yet not My will, but Yours be done.”
v. 42b
Brokenness is a painful, purifying process. Don’t avoid it. Embrace it. Getting your own way looks like an open highway, but it is a dead end street. It brings pain without gain.
King Solomon was the wisest, the richest, and the most gratified man the world has ever known. When he came to the end of His life, he was pained, and drained, poisoned by a lifetime of guzzling the saltwater of self-gratification. He summed his life of pampered preferences with words of utter futility.
“So I congratulated the dead who are already dead more than the living you are still living.” Ecclesiastes 4:2
Solomon said more than he knew when he congratulated the dead. Prayer breaks a man fighting for personal survival, until he falls at the threshold of personal revival. Prayerful people discover dying to self is painful but is required for brokenness. Prideful people discover living for self isn’t painless. It is just pointless.
The crucifixion was designed by the Romans to exert prolonged pain as long as possible and to postpone certain death until the last possible moment. Praying prepared Jesus to die to His will before He got to the cross. Jesus yielded His will to The Father’s will. Prayer focused His eyes upon the gain of the cross, not the pain of the cross. Brave men had been placed upon the cross before, but none of them had raced to it. Jesus embraced the pain of the crucifixion to release the power of the resurrection.
The power of the resurrection is released by the crucifixion of self. Dying to self is painful to your pride and preferences. Genuine, sustained brokenness hurts, but there is a purpose to the pain. It prepares you for intimacy with Jesus. Prayer conformed the will of Jesus to the will of His Father. Let it do the same for you.
“It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply.” A.W. Tozer
NOTE TO SELF: More than Jesus wants you to do something for Him, He desires for you to spend time with Him. Never let your spirit of independence exceed the limits of your dependence. If you have wandered beyond the distance of a stone’s throw, you are in a dark place. Prayer moves you towards The Light.
TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!