Have you ever prayed and ask God did He not see nor understand what you were going through? How you needed to be delivered from the very thing which caused you agony and pain?
I don't know about you, but I have. Just the other day, I asked God the familiar question: "Can't you see what I'm going through? As I asked this question I heard a still voice speak to me. The voice reminded me of Jesus when he was in the Garden of Gethsemane. When He asked Peter, James and John to keep watched for his "soul was crushed with grief (Matt 26:36 New Living Translation.)."
Jesus went a little further away from the disciples and bowed his face to the ground and began to pray, "My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine (Matt 26:39 New Living Translation)." Jesus petitioned God three times to remove the cup from Him, but only if it was in accordance with His will. However, each time He prayed He returned to find the disciples fast asleep.
Isn't funny, when fall into adverse trials you can find no one to turn too? Have you ever tried calling a friend, when your heart is heavy and the phone just rings? Or, if you did get a friend on the line, they were to busy to talk too you?
So, you can imagine how Jesus felt, when he returned from praying to find the disciples sleeping. In my research of Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, I found the words "agony" and "anguish" were used to describe His suffering. Therefore, I sought out the dictionary for a literary description of the two words. Per my review, I found the synonyms of the word "agony" and "anguish" accurately depicts the suffering of Jesus.
The synonyms for agony are:
affliction, anguish, distress, dolor (pain, sensation of physical discomfort (often due to illness or injury)), misery, pangs, passion (Christian terminology used for the events and suffering, physical, spiritual, and mental), throe (a hard or painful struggle), torment, torture and woe.
Moreover,the synonyms for anguish is described as:
affliction, agony, distress, dole (a portion or share), dolor, grief, heartbreak, heartache, hurting, misery, pang, rue, sorrow, suffering, throe, torment, torture, woe, wretchedness.
A deeper study revealed that "hopelessness", has a significant impact on the frailities of man. The synonyms for hopelessness is described as:
agony, anguish, anxiety, concerns, dejection (a form of frozen frustration or depression, low spirit, the inability to complete a goal or complete it only halfway, giving up on something), depression, desolation, despair, despondency, discomfort, disconsolateness, distraction, distress, fear, gloom, grief, heartache, melancholy, misery, pain, pang, sorrow, torture, trouble, unhappiness, worry.
Wow! Can you beleive it! Thanks be to God! Jesus felt every infirmity we can ever imagine in the Garden of Gethsemane. So much, that the sweat from His brow, was liken unto big drops of blood. How sweet is our Lord and Saviour who bore our sins. Praise be to God! But it can never be so eloquently stated as in the book of Isaiah, chapter 53 verse 4 and 5:
4Yet it was our weaknessess He carried; it was our sorrows* that weighed him down. And we thought His troubles was a punishment from God, a punishment for His on sins! 5But He was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed (New Living Translation).
So you see, we do not serve an idol of wood or stone, carved by the hands of man. We serve a God who nailed every circumstance, pressure, burden, pain, affliction, sickness, worry, anxiety, fear, gloom, doubt, unbelief, disbelief, frustration and hopeleness to the cross.
We serve a risen Savior who has felt every ounce of agony and anguish we will ever imagine. So, the next time your heart is burden with the pressures of this life, take a moment and remember Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.
I guarantee you our momentary afflictions, can never compare to what He did for us on the cross.
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