Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch.”
—
Mark 14:34
Have you ever felt lonely? Have you ever felt as though your friends and family had abandoned you? Have you ever felt like you were misunderstood? Have you ever had a hard time understanding or submitting to the will of God for your life? If so, then you have an idea of what the Lord Jesus went through as He agonized at Gethsemane.—
Mark 14:34
The Bible tells us that Jesus was “a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief” (Isaiah 53:3). But the sorrow He experienced in Gethsemane on the night before His crucifixion seemed to be the culmination of all the sorrow He had ever known and would accelerate to a climax the following day. The ultimate triumph that was to take place at Calvary was first accomplished beneath the old olive trees of Gethsemane.
It is interesting that the very word Gethsemane means “olive press.” Olives were pressed there to make oil, and truly, Jesus was being pressed from all sides that He might bring life to us. I don’t think we can even begin to fathom what He went through.
But look at what it accomplished. It brought about your salvation and mine. Because of what Jesus went through at Gethsemane and ultimately at the cross, we are now the children of God. Though it was an unfathomably painful experience, it was necessary for the ultimate goal of what was accomplished.
Maybe you are at a crisis point in your life right now—a personal Gethsemane. All you need to do is to say, “Lord, not my will, but yours be done”.
Prayer:
Lord, not my will, but yours be done.Scriptural Reading:
Mark 14:32-42
