As believers we are not exempted from difficulties. It even appears from Scripture that we are likely to see more difficulties than an unbeliever. The difference is that we have somewhere to turn when we face them. The difference of how we pray about these situations will make a difference in how we go through them.
When I began to think about Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane I asked myself several questions. “What exactly was going on here?” “Was Jesus asking something that He knew He could not receive?” “Was this a prayer that the Father refused to answer for His Son?” As I continued to think about it I realized that what was taking place was none of these things. So the answer I came to concerning Jesus’ prayer turns out to be the key idea of this passage which is: In His prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus was not asking to avert His upcoming suffering but was surrendering to do the Father’s will.
In this passage of Scripture we note that Mark outlines four aspects of this prayer of submission.
1. The Requirement for the Prayer of Submission
The first aspect of this prayer is the requirement for the prayer of submission. When is it necessary to pray the prayer of submission? We see Jesus about to enter into one of the most crucial phases of His ministry on earth. He feels the weight of the pain that He is going to bear. It was going to be pain that none of us have ever experienced. Yet His body is so distraught at the prospect that He begins to experience a great struggle within. But instead of seeing how important the day is going to be and decide that He needs a good night of sleep He spends His last night before His crucifixion awake and praying. The struggle within in Him is so great that He spends the next three hours in prayer. I think that Jesus prays here in order to get His emotions (how He feels) in line with what He knows He needs to do.
On this basis I would say that the prayer of submission is necessary for us to pray when
1) you feel overwhelmed by the task that God has for you to do;
2) you are struggling in the midst of a difficult circumstance;
3) you recognize that there is an area of your life that you have yet to turn over to God
4) when your natural impulses and feelings cause you to retreat from doing right
5) when you think the direction God wants you to go will cost you too much Too much in personal freedom
Too much in way of relaxation or pleasure
Too much in happiness
Let’s look for a moment at Jesus’ struggle. Had He known all along that He needed to die on the cross? Of course He did. Did He know that He would carry the weight of the sins of the world upon His shoulders? Yes. Some would say that Jesus didn’t have a struggle here. They would say that Jesus’ humanity had no difficulty in this situation. Yet the Scripture says that Jesus was tempted in all points, as we are yet without sin. I think we get the wrong impression if we believe that Jesus was a man of steel, impervious to the same range of emotions that we experience. If this were the case how could the Scripture say that He sympathized with our own weaknesses? Jesus needed to come to the Father in the same way that we do. So though Jesus didn’t sin, He struggled and I think this is what the prayer of submission is about. Jesus finds Himself in the midst of a great struggle. And He does not sin because He goes immediately to the only One who can help Him.
Look at Jesus’ anguish. Verse 33 says that He began to be distressed and troubled. In verse 34, Jesus says, “My soul is deeply grieved unto the point of death.” He was under such stress that He felt He could almost die. The pressure upon Him was immense. You can hear Jesus’ labored breathing. You see the concern etched upon His face. He walks a little farther past His disciples, falls to the ground due to his anguish and begins to pray.
Instead of seeing this as a sign of weakness, though, I think we need to understand it as a sign of spiritual strength. Don’t think you are weak spiritually if you are struggling through whether you are going to obey God or not. IT IS weakness IF you choose the easy way. It is weakness if you don’t have time to be concerned about whether you are going to do right or do wrong. I would rather be troubled about a difficult decision to obey God than to not be concerned and follow whatever way feels good to me. Let me ask you a question. When were you so concerned about doing God’s will that it troubled you almost to the point of death? When were you so distressed about doing right in the midst of a great difficulty that it caused you to sweat and you fell on your face to pray that God would strengthen you so as not to sin?
When was the last time you got ready for work and fell down in your room and cried out, “God I know that John makes me so mad I could spit. Help me so I don’t sin against you! I don’t want to dishonor you by swearing again.” Or when did you come before God and say, “Lord, they’re going to ask me to lie at work again. Father you are truth. I mock you when I lie. Come to my help O God so I can have the strength to say to them that I’m only going to tell the truth from now on regardless of the circumstances.” Or how long has it been since you said something like, “Father, I feel like I’m suffocating in the midst of this problem. Help me to recognize Your hand in it. Help me to live through it in Your strength because I cannot do it alone. I’ll fail You if you don’t strengthen me. Help me.”
Oh that we should be so concerned about doing right that we would cry out to God over those things into which we readily fall. Wouldn’t we be different people if we saw our need for the Father’s help in this way? Let’s look more closely at this prayer of submission so that we would come to understand our need like Jesus did.
2. The Recognition in the Prayer of Submission
The next aspect of this prayer is the recognition in the prayer of submission. We see from Jesus’ prayer that the prayer of submission recognizes three truths.
A. God is Sovereign (You can do all things)
The first truth that the prayer of submission recognizes is that God is sovereign. What this means is that God is ultimately in control of all things. We see this in Jesus’ words in verse 36, “All things are possible for You; remove this cup from me; yet not what I will but what you will.” Here Jesus wasn’t asking the Father to circumvent His will. Jesus was recognizing that the Father could change what He had for Jesus to do if He wanted. But Jesus wasn’t asking that He change. He was simply acknowledging that His Father was in control of everything that was going on. Though Jesus wouldn’t have minded being out from under the pain He was going to experience He knew that God had everything under control according to His plan.
Whatever circumstances we come across whether it’s our struggle against sin, living joyfully under a severe circumstance we need to similarly acknowledge, “Father, this situation I am going through right now is extreme. But I know you can change it if you want. More than anything else I want to do your will.” When we pray that, we are recognizing God’s sovereignty. And though we would like to be out from under the hardship (and wouldn’t complain if we were) we have to admit, “God You know what you are doing. Help me to obey You in the midst of it. You can do all things but You know why You are allowing me to go through this difficulty.”
One great preacher of the past said, “Every wise workman takes his tools away from the work from time to time that they may be ground and sharpened; so does the only-wise Jehovah take His servants oftentimes away into darkness and loneliness and trouble, that He may sharpen and prepare them for harder work in His service.” God is sovereign in how He works in our lives. He works differently in each of our lives but He does work in everyone of our lives. We need to recognize that He is sovereign. If He is sharpening us it is for His glory and our good. It is not because He doesn’t know what is going on. Nothing escapes His notice nor takes Him by surprise.
B. God has a specific plan for each of us
The second truth that the prayer of submission recognizes is that God has a specific plan for each of us. At the end of verse 36 Jesus says, “Not my will but yours be done.” In recognizing God’s sovereignty that He can do anything Jesus also admits that the Father has a specific plan for Him to fulfill. Right from the earliest time in His life Jesus saw that the Father had specific instructions for Him to carry out. At the age of 12, He said to His parents, “Didn’t you know that I should be in my Father’s house?” When Jesus was going into Jerusalem the Scripture says that it was necessary for Him to pass through Samaria. He had a specific will to follow so that He could lead some people to faith in Him. When He began His ministry, Jesus told His mother that His hour had not yet come. Now Jesus realizes that His hour has come. And the event for which He ultimately came to earth was drawing near. His Father had a specific plan for Him.
In the same way, God has a specific plan for each of us. And in our lives we need to be saying, “Not my will Father but your will be done.” And we need to be concerned about fulfilling His plan for our lives. We need not be concerned about what others want us to accomplish, nor even what we want to accomplish but what God wants us to accomplish (John 21). Ultimately our lives as believers will be determined as profitable or worthless based on whether we sought to do God’s will or ours. Recognizing that God has a specific plan for our lives is only part of the picture. We need, like Jesus, to seek it and do it. For when we put God’s will ahead of our own desires He sees to it that our desires become His desires and we gain much more than we could ever have thought possible in following Him. That’s what Matthew 6:33 is all about. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.” God has a specific plan for your life. Seek it and do it. Don’t waste it!
C. God is a concerned father
The third truth that the prayer of submission recognizes is that God is a concerned father. It seems almost out of place in this text but at the beginning of Jesus’ prayer He cries out, “Abba Father.” Jesus uses a term that children spoke to show love for their father. “Daddy, Daddy” Jesus says. He begins crying out His prayer of submission recognizing that God is a concerned father. He knows that what He must go through is absolutely necessary.
In the same what we experience as believers God sees as absolutely necessary. Any pain that we go through and difficulties we face are all completely vital to our growth and well being as Christians.
If as a parent you take your child to a dentist. And the dentist says, “Your daughter has two cavities.” You realize that though your daughter may not be in any pain now it is imperative for her to experience some pain in order for her to get better. She must have her teeth drilled and filled. Yet you wouldn’t want her to go through this without Novocain. You would want her to experience the least amount of pain and yet have the job done right. In the same way, God doesn’t bring pain into our lives for no reason nor does He apply more pain than necessary to accomplish His work. Charles Spurgeon said, “As sure as whenever God puts His children in the furnace, He will be in the furnace with them.” When we submit ourselves to God’s will we recognize that He is a concerned Father and we too, along with Jesus, can say, “Father, dear Father.”
3. The Struggle through the Prayer of Submission
The third aspect of this prayer is the struggle through the prayer of submission. Even though we may admit that God is sovereign and has a specific will for our lives and is a concerned father there may still be a period of struggle in which our acknowledgment of these things can take some time before they become real.
We see that going through the prayer of submission can be a struggle. There are two ways we see Jesus struggling in His prayer.
A. Jesus kept praying
The first way that we see Jesus struggling in His prayer is that Jesus kept praying. In verse 35 the verb tense in the original shows a continuous action. The verse literally says, “Jesus kept on praying.” He didn’t stop praying. His prayer wasn’t, “Now I lay me down to sleep.” And we see from the text that He prayed for three hours. He came to the disciples after His first session of prayer and asked them if they couldn’t watch but one hour. Then He goes away and prays two more times.
B. Jesus came with the same request
The second way that we see Jesus struggling in His prayer is that Jesus came with the same request. Verse 39 says, “Again He went away and prayed, saying the same words.” Jesus made the same request three times. He said the same thing.
I think that Jesus’ prayer was about more than just saying a few words. The time spent before His Father wasn’t filled up with many words but with groaning and crying. The book of Hebrews says that Jesus offered up loud crying and tears in His prayer. When our grief is so great and the pain so intense sometimes most of our prayer is simply crying and tears. Romans 8 says that the Spirit Himself helps our weakness; that the Spirit intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. When we truly want God’s help in the midst of a great dilemma we mustn’t become distressed about it without seeking God. If we are going to be distressed we must cast it before Him otherwise our distress is merely magnified by our own worry. But when we bring it before our heavenly Father, the Spirit intercedes for us when our words fail, when all we can say, as we lay there before Him is, “Father not my will but yours be done.” And so there is more to praying than saying a few words and being done with it. Jesus spent three hours with His Father in agony, saying “Not my will by yours be done.”
This is an area in which most of us fall short. We are not concerned enough about those issues in our lives to pray about them, to really pray and cry out to God to give us the ability to follow through in doing His will. We become so complacent with our lives that we neglect to pray. Somehow we think we are stronger than Jesus who regularly came to the Father for the strength to carry out His will. Where do we get off neglecting to pray or skimping in our prayer life? We think we are too busy or too important, or sadly, too strong in our faith to pray for long periods of time. We think that we can accomplish great things for God without asking for His help or direction. We compare ourselves with great saints of the past, like George Mueller or John Wesley or D.L. Moody or Hudson Taylor. We think that we will do great things like them but will not take the time to pray like them. These men accomplished great things for God because they labored long in prayer.
Look at what Jesus says to His disciples. Could you not pray with me for one hour? Watch and pray so that you do not fall into temptation. God doesn’t hold back temptation until we are ready to face it. Jesus didn’t go back to His disciples two more times because He was waiting for them to get on board the prayer train. The Father wasn’t holding up the time of Jesus’ betrayal until the disciples had prayed enough. Jesus made it clear that if they didn’t take these hours to pray they would find themselves defeated by temptation instead of overcoming it. Jesus was speaking of the need to pray to overcome the temptations in our lives.
4. The Conviction Found in the Prayer of Submission
The final aspect of this prayer is conviction found in the prayer of submission. The exciting thing that we discover in entering into the prayer of submission is that once we have submitted to God, He will give us the conviction or confidence to face the difficult circumstances He has for us. (Look at v. 42)
So how can we have the confidence and determination to face the difficult circumstance in the joy of the Lord? The key we need to recognize in this kind of struggle is that Jesus went to the right source in His difficulty. When we are troubled with the issue of doing right or wrong where do we turn? Do we become burdened about it or do we shrug it off as some unimportant event as if we concluded that we were sweating the small stuff. Do you fall down before the Father and cry out for His grace or do you allow yourself to be pulled the world’s way? Do you desire God’s best, purity of mind and body but settle for what’s easiest instead?
The disciples missed their opportunity to pray so they could overcome temptation. Are you going to be like the disciples? Do you, in your daily struggles think you need more time to sleep than to pray? Will you recognize the importance of praying to overcome temptation? Too often we are lulled into the fog of indecision or misdirection because the Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. When the Spirit says get up and pray don’t neglect His voice. Don’t say tomorrow, because tomorrow your resolve will be even weaker.
Haven’t we all experienced these struggles?
Have you ever told God you’d believe His Word if He’d only show you first?
Have you given only part of your life to the Lord (leaving back the part we still want control over)?
How have you handled these struggles? Do you need to go back to that place of surrender and submission to God? Will you seek His presence in prayer so that you might serve Him with the renewed vigor that we so often lack?
Many Christians tend to view their lives in light of how much pleasure they can have in life instead of the joy they can have in God. Perhaps this is because many Christians have not experienced the real heart filling joy that can only come from seeking to put Christ first in all they do.
Dedicate yourself to pray diligently each day this week that you may not fall into temptation.