LIVING IN GETHSEMANE..

When our precious Savior was in the now infamous garden of Getsemane, Luke tells us He prayed in agony, so much so that He sweat drops of blood. Luke also tells us that our Lord actually asked His Heavenly Father that if it were in any way possible to take this cup from Him. I think it's safe to say we know how that ended up as Jesus honored His Father's Will and died for our sins.
So why did I title this blogsite "Living in Gethsemane?" Because when Jesus was at what could easily be thought of as His lowest point in His life as a man here on Earth, Gethsemane was where he stayed, hour after hour, in prayer to our Father, asking to be released, yet accepting His Father's Will in obedience to Him and because of His great Love for us.
This year I will be turning 40. The number itself doesn't really mean that much to me other than I REALLY had hoped we would have been Raptured way before I ever got THAT old, but the year itself as been life changing, life transforming and full of both the greatest joy I've ever felt and yet the greatest pain as well.
As a young mother, when both my children were waddling around, I would invision these years of my life with great joy, believing my children would be finishing high school, maybe entering college, happy, healthy and most important, as SAVED Christians. Really my only goal was to try to raise them right and have them live for Christ someday, in whatever way He & they chose.
Instead, I find myself in what I consider my own garden of Gethsemane. I feel like I am forever in agony over prayer for my loved ones and the destructive choices they've made and the wildernesses of misery they are living in. I beg our Lord daily to save them, do whatever it takes to 'bring them back' to Him and I WAIT. The worst part of it all to me, the waiting and watching the horrors unfold. I know I must, I know I cannot just walk away, I know I must continue to pray, continue to hope.
I also know that Jesus truly can understand these things, as He has not only 'been there', He went there and kept on going! Envisioning myself in the garden that our Lord Himself knelt in agony and prayer comforts me and reminds me I'm not alone - I'm living in Gethsemane with Him!
How about you? Where do you feel like you are spending most of your emotional time? Can you relate? If so, I'm hoping we can relate together and help others who feel they cannot get out of this place, feel some comfort and know we are not only not alone because He is with us, but we are also not alone because He has mandated fellowship between His people for the good times to share and, most importantly, the 'bad'. The times that cause us to feel as though we can never leave that garden of prayer because it's just not getting better and if we leave and cease our prayers, who then will stand in that gap for our lost family, friends, and even those we do not even know yet? Who? No one.
So, here I am, in living in this garden of pain and agony - yet also joy, praying and waiting for His Will to reveal itself, and very aware and grateful that whatever the end is for my situations, it will not be what Christ's was, that battle has been fought and won already by Jesus & someday because of that we will be with Him celebrating face to Face!
Please click on the next page for "my story...ok not the WHOLE story.."