The betrayal and arrest of Jesus was preceded by an extended time of prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. When He stepped out of the garden to present Himself to His enemies, Jesus had been alone, praying and agonizing for hours, wrestling with the will of His Father for His life, sweating what seemed to be great drops of blood in His effort. Throughout His agony He received the personal ministration of angels who helped Him to renew His strength, and He overcame the supreme temptation of the enemy to defy God’s purpose, choosing instead to go to the Cross. His humble submission to His Father’s will must have given Him a mantle of power that cloaked Him for the nine-hour journey that would take Him through six different trials, the inhumane cruelty of physical torture, the ultimate rejection by those He loved, and the climax of His own crucifixion and death on a Roman cross.
How is it that you and I think we can make it through the grueling journey of life without that same humble submission to the Father?
Every morning that I’m home, weather permitting, I walk with two friends for two and a half miles. We have to abide by two basic rules when we walk, or we can’t walk together. The first rule is that we must walk at the same pace. The second rule is that we must walk in the same direction. The same two rules apply when walking with God.
To walk at this pace means that we are living our lives in step-by-step obedience to His Word. To walk in the same direction means that we surrender the direction of our lives to Him. The only way we can know His pace and direction is to prayerfully read His Word.
What adjustments do you need to make so you can walk with God? Adjustments in your daily and weekly schedule? Adjustments in your attitude and ambition? Adjustments in your personal habits of prayer and Bible reading? Make sure you are not too busy for daily prayer and Bible reading or you will get out of step and lose your sense of direction.
God never asks us to give Him what we don’t have. But He does demand that we give Him all we do have if we want to be a part of what He wishes to do in the lives of those around us!
Remember the servants at the wedding in Cana? They had the thrill of knowing firsthand that water went into the pitcher, but wine came out! They had the unparalleled experience of participating in a miracle! Could you be in danger of missing the thrilling blessing of participating with God in a miracle because, for whatever reason, you won’t give Him all that you have? The disciples did not know it at the time, but they were on the verge of participating in a miracle because they gave Jesus everything they had found to feed the crowd: five barley loaves and two small fish! As a result, the entire multitude was fed-and blessed!
As we totally yield our lives to the control of God’s Spirit within us, He uses:
the responsibilities and relationships and ridicule,
the opportunities and obstacles and obligations,
the pressures and pain and problems,
the success and sickness and solitude . . .
He uses all things to work for our ultimate good, which is increasing, progressive, glorious conformity to the image of Jesus Christ. (Rom. 8:28)
We are God’s treasure! When God the Father looked throughout the universe for something to give His only Son in reward for what He had accomplished on earth, the Father handpicked you! You are the Father’s treasure – His priceless gift of love to the Son!
The first secret to loving others is to immerse yourself in a love relationship with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit – and abide there.
I will never get over the wonder that God the Father and God the Son do not have
a working kinship
nor a business partnership
nor a brotherly friendship
nor a competing dictatorship
nor a mandatory fellowship
nor an obligatory guardianship
but a love relationship
that has existed since before time and space! And you and I enter into that eternal sphere of unconditional love when we abide in Christ.
