HOPE 365 Toolbox - Holy Week: Prayer, A Gift from God

Holy Week: Prayer, a Gift from Jesus

You do not realize right now what I am doing, but later you will understand. John 13:7

Jesus shared these words with his disciples right before he bent down to wash their feet on the evening of the Passover. A lot was about to happen in the next few days, and He knew that they weren’t going to understand. But He was asking them to trust Him.

Often, we may find ourselves in a similar position where do not understand what is happening in our lives and how it can be part of God’s plan. But, like the disciples, Jesus is asking us to trust Him as His will plays out in our circumstances. 

Jesus understands our pain and distress. We see him crying out to God in the Garden of Gethsemane, “My Father, if it is possible may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will but as you will.”

Jesus demonstrates for us how prayer can make a difference in our lives as we deal with challenges that come our way. He cried out from the depths of His being to God, his Father.

Through prayer, we can cry out to God, our Father and tell Him what is going on in our lives. We can express to Him all our concerns, as well as our ideas of how a situation can be fixed. As we do, He graciously brings us to a place of surrender as we realize that He is much bigger than we are. We realize, His ways are not our ways, His thoughts are not our thoughts. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are His ways higher than our ways and His thoughts higher than our thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9). 

Through this conversation of wrestling with God in prayer, we can find freedom by letting go and trusting His will in the same way Jesus did that day so long ago in the Garden of Gethsemane. “Yet not as I will but as you will.”

During this Holy Week, would you like to take some time to wrestle with God in prayer? CLICK HERE to sign up for the Good Friday Prayer Vigil where you can pray in the sanctuary or at home. Or stop by the church and experience the Stations in the Street. 

In mid-April, we are going be offering a special study on Prayer called The Prayer Course. Watch for more details and consider joining a group on Wednesday night or Thursday mornings to learn some new tools to help you pray.