Grace--Do You Have What It Takes?

Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” Matthew 26:39

The prayer is familiar. We know Jesus prayed it to the Father in the garden of Gethsemane. Scripture describes it as an olive grove across the Kidron valley, east of Jerusalem. Outside of the rainy season, it is usually dry there. It must be why Jesus and his disciples often met there. They must have found peace and comfort there.

But the night Jesus uttered this prayer, that place might as well have been a spot between two colliding mountains. In this spot the LORD knew only too well that he was about to be crushed. And he had nowhere to run and hide, nowhere to go to seek comfort.

That’s what it’s like being caught in the jaws of trouble that has your name stamped right on it. The comfortable places no longer provide solace. Your fancy footwork no longer proves nimble to get you out of harm’s way. Your wisdom cranks in high gear but keeps taking you only to dead ends. No safe harbor. No carefree refuge.

“Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” Mark 14:36

Gethsemane was a place of fellowship. That was before. That night, it was a very lonely place for the LORD. Twice he asked his disciples to watch and pray with him. Three times he found them asleep.

Distress. Struggles. These could find you in the liveliest places of your life and turn them into lonely Gethsemane’s. Yes, friends will sympathize. They will offer to help. But before long they, too, will be gone. They will promise to pray. But soon they will forget. Tough times have a way of doing that.

Not because they do not love you or they don’t care. It’s because the trouble is not theirs. They do not feel the pressure themselves. They do not feel the pain.

“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”
Luke 22:42

In the garden, Jesus asked if there was another way. There wasn’t any. Sin is so horrible only he has the shoulders and the heart to bear the brunt of the Father’s wrath. Wrath that could easily wipe out mankind. There was to be no shaking this tough time off him. The alternative was simply unthinkable.

There are such gardens in our lives where we pray and ask the Father, “Why?”

“Why me?”

And all he says is, “My grace is sufficient for you.”

“Father, I am hurting.”

“My grace is sufficient for you.”

“God, I am being accused of something I didn’t do.”

“My grace is sufficient for you.”

“LORD, my wife left me. My son is on drugs. I lost my job.”

“My grace is sufficient for you.”

Jesus commanded Peter, “Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?” John 18:11

Gethsemane is a special place of suffering. It is a place where the fellowship is in sharing with Christ the loneliest, most troubling time of his ministry in this earth. It is the place where the grace of God is best learned.

There is no way you can experience the grace of God without being crushed. Not because God loves crushing people but because you are dealing with flesh.

The garden is where you find that place where the why’s and the hurt and the betrayals and the troubles, the distress, the pressures don’t matter anymore. Not because you don’t care but because you’ve learned to trust God and the grace that he sustains you with.

And how God shows up to you in tough times, you become to others. Once you’ve known God’s grace in tough times, you can then be there for others. Then you are able to comfort others.

Have you ever been to the garden?

My grace is sufficient for you. 2 Corinthians 12:9