And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly—- Luke 22:44
We talk about being like Jesus, but we are seldom willing to subject ourselves to agony for the sake of doing the Father’s will. Nor do we practice Christian disciplines such as prayer like our dear Savior did. If we only understood how crucial prayer is to our welfare we would spend more time giving ourselves to it, and less time complaining about our agonies. More than a century ago J. R. Miller wrote:
“We see the Master at prayer in Gethsemane. It was here that He prepared for His Cross. We should notice that His refuge in His exceeding sorrow — was prayer; and that, as the sorrow deepened — the refuge still was prayer. Prayer is the only refuge in sorrow. The lesson from the garden prayer is that we should take all the hard things, the anguishes, the insufferable pains, the bitter griefs of our lives — to God in prayer. We may be sure, too, that God will answer. If He does not relieve us of the suffering, He will strengthen us so that we can keep it, and still go on trusting and singing.”
