Wonderful Love!

(You can listen to the audio commentary by double clicking here http://hometown.aol.com/traqair/Todaysdev.mp3 - if you get a page of symbols, don't worry, just double click the link again)

 

Psalm 36: 5     Your love, O LORD, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies.

 

Sometimes on Sunday mornings, when all of our young families come to the front of the church, I sing old choruses with them. It always amazes me that some action songs that I learned as a child, still captivate the hearts and minds of the kids in our church. One such chorus is called “Jesus’ Love is Very Wonderful,” which I can remember being taught to me at a seaside mission on the West coast of Scotland forty years ago.

 

I still love the refrain because of the goofy actions that go along with it: reaching up to the ceiling, crouching down low; and then spreading your arms out as wide as you can. When we sing it in church, the children shriek with delight and jump up and down, just like I did on those Scottish beaches decades ago.

 

I don't know if the psalmist ever had actions that went along with his words of faith, but his description of God’s love reaching up to the heavens was his way of expressing the magnitude of God’s loving-kindness. It was a way of saying that all creation is immersed and surrounded by God’s love. There is no geographical area on earth or above in space where God’s love does not exist. The apostle Paul put it even better when he wrote:

“…neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:39)

 

Today, let us all rejoice in the infinite love of God and, as we joyfully experience it in our hearts, let’s share it with all those whom we encounter.

 

Prayer:                        Lord Jesus, Your love is very wonderful. It’s so high, we can't get over it; so low, we can't go under it; so wide, we can't get around it. O Wonderful love! Amen.

Calvary's Cul-de-Sac

Calvary's Cul-de-Sac
Originally uploaded by traqair57.

Another of my digital glass church window cubist designs - this time imaging Christ's Dead Man Walking through the streets of Jerusalem to the Dead End predestined for Him at Calvary.

For the Children

Proverbs 30:5,6 "Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. Do not add to his words, or he will rebuke you and prove you a liar.

I was involved in a radio debate this morning regarding an issue about a local church having an evangelical crusade during school hours. Kids are taken out of their school for two hours over three days to go to a revival meeting. Classes are practically shut down and teachers are left with very few students. The kids who don’t get their parents’ permission to go, are left behind and sometimes, when the other students come back, they are singled out and told they are going to hell.

I disagree with this happening on several planes because I think that the constitutional ‘agreement’ on separation of church and state is being flouted. More importantly, I think that the kids who are harassing others are not witnessing to Christ in a way that He would want. He was very careful to look after the younger ones in His midst, and I don’t ever remember Him telling children that they were going to hell. Someone, somewhere is adding something to Christ’s words and deeds; and that, according to today’s scripture, deserves to be rebuked by God.

Now, I don’t want any child on earth to miss out in going to heaven, to experience God’s everlasting love, and to know of Christ’s grace. It seems to me that those who create an apocalyptic anxiety in those who are so young damage their innocence and may even pervert their souls. When Christ condemns those who cause little ones to sin (Matthew 18:6), He doesn’t exclude zealous preachers or crusading churches whose message may create fanatics and incite hatred. The condemnation is for all those who cause little ones to sin, not just for those who are outside of the Christian community.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, children are a precious gift to any community. Their innocence and loving hearts need to be cherished by those of us who preach, teach, and reach out from church. Keep us from raising insensitive fanatics and intolerant fools, whose religious hatred harms other souls. Help us to nurture gracious servants and godly shepherds, whose Christian love will win over their peers. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

Sword Fight

(You can listen to the audio commentary by double clicking here http://hometown.aol.com/traqair/Todaysdev.mp3 - if you get a page of symbols, don't worry, just double click the link again)

 

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

 

I used to fence with swords when I was a teenager. My friend Graeme and I somehow managed to purchase two foils in a second hand shop. I think we originally bought them for a play we were doing, but we got so hooked on the swords that we started to fence outside in my backyard.

 

It was good fun, but we used no masks or protective clothing, so it was pretty painful at times. The foils were tipped, but if they scraped across open skin, it left a scar for days. We worked out a staged fight and used to entertain the local kids, as well as some bus drivers and their passengers who stopped to watch us for a couple of minutes each day.

 

And then one day Graeme lunged at me and hit me in the face. He hit the corner of my right eye, which left a nasty red mark across my face. If he had hit me a quarter of an inch to the left, I would have lost the eye. It was a very painful and poignant moment. That night we put the swords away and decided to take up judo instead.

 

Peter just wanted to protect Jesus when he lunged at Malchus with his sword. Out of all the disciples, he was the only one who defended Christ. It was an impetuous and impossible thing to do. The high priests posse had arrived with clubs and swords, so no matter what Peter did, Jesus would still be arrested.

 

But Jesus didn’t rebuke the posse. He rebuked Peter, which must have seemed harsh at the time. It’s only later that you realize Jesus was protecting Peter from being taken. The Big Fisherman was not about to be caught in the Sanhedrin’s trap. By insisting that Christ had to drink the cup of wrath from God, Jesus was giving Peter a way out. He was diverting attention away from Peter and turning it towards Himself. It was an act of grace. It was a gift from God.

 

Sometimes, as Christians, we get fired up and are full of zeal for the Lord. We want to protect Him from all the damage that the world still wants to cause Him, but in the process we act irrationally and put ourselves in danger. We forget that Christ has the power to make things right and that one glorious day, His justice will prevail.

 

Prayer:                        Lord Jesus, we love You and we want to please You. Forgive us when our zeal blinds our reason and our forceful ways diminish our faith. Grant us the godly gift of discernment, to know when and how to say and do the right things, as opposed to doing them at the wrong time, in an un-Christian way. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

 

Strengthening Angels

(You can listen to the audio commentary by double clicking here http://hometown.aol.com/traqair/Todaysdev.mp3 - if you get a page of symbols, don't worry, just double click the link again)

 

Luke 22:43     An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him.

 

We tend to think that Jesus was some sort of sacred superman who had no weaknesses and that nothing could damage His spirit. When we read this passage about Gethsemane, we quickly realize how human Christ was, and that even with all of His faith, He still experienced fear. We see Him here as a troubled man, overwhelmed with sorrow and despised by the world; but do we also see Him as a petrified child trying His best to do His Father’s bidding?

 

The last time Christ was this vulnerable in the scriptures was when Herod set out to kill the boys in Bethlehem. Jesus was just an infant and He depended upon Mary and Joseph’s care and protection. Now He was on his own in Gethsemane, and even although His natural instincts were crying out to flee, He exhausted Himself struggling to stay the course.

 

That’s when the angel appeared beside Christ to give Him strength. It was God’s last gift to His Son before His death.

 

In our churches, there are many people who are fearful, whose faith is being stretched and whose troubles are breaking their spirits. During those times, the communion of the saints is so important because we can be the strengthening angels to those who need help in our congregations and community. No one should have to face their fears alone, for even God saw to it that Jesus was comforted when He was in distress.

 

Prayer:                        Lord Jesus, You struggled at Gethsemane and wrestled with Your fears. You understand our pain and sickness, our times of trial and tribulation. Thank You for allowing Your Spirit to be ever present with us, but we also thank You for the angels amongst us that we can turn to, who give us hope, encouragement, and support when we need it most. In Your Holy Name, we thankfully pray. Amen.

Joseph's Journey

Joseph's Journey
Originally uploaded by traqair57.

Biblical epic in abstract form for stained glass design

Create & Separate

Genesis 1:4        God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness.

 

The word for separation in biblical Hebrew is “badal”, from which, I believe, we get the word ‘bad.’ We've all heard of the saying ‘separating the good from the bad’ and it is usually used by farmers and fruit growers when they are picking or gathering the harvest. But originally it meant a separation, a division, an exclusion of one from the other. In this instance from Genesis, light is termed as being ‘good’; and darkness is separated, presumably as being ‘bad.’

 

Right from the first chapter in Genesis, we see that God separates, divides, and even judges. Most people these days try to avoid thinking of God being judgmental, and want to throw out all the passages about punishment, wrath, and eternal separation. In fact, I was e-mailing a minister in North East Tennessee just last week about this subject. He doesn't believe that God will judge anyone. When I mentioned the Gospel passage about Dives the rich man, and Lazarus the poor man which Jesus told to reveal how God judged people by their actions, the other pastor wrote to say that he believed that the rich man would be eventually forgiven, despite the fact that the way Jesus told the story, there was no opportunity for redemption beyond death.

 

God’s ways are not our ways and His thoughts are unlike our own. When we try to cozy up to God and make Him into what we want, we've created an idol. God does separate; God does divide; and God does judge. The sooner we accept that, the quicker we can adapt our lives to fall into His ways by repenting of our mistakes and placing our souls into Christ’s nail-pierced hands.

 

Prayer:                  Lord Jesus, sometimes we are guilty of trying to shape You into what is acceptable to us, our culture, and our world. We forget that others tried to do that to You in Jerusalem centuries ago, and that when You wouldn't bend to their will, they hung You on a cross. Forgive us for being so presumptive and pardon us for failing to accept Your ways. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

Shining Light

Key Verse:

2 Corinthians 4:6                For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

 

Thought for the Day:

 

The first Christians were very courageous people. Their faith meant so much to them that they often laid down their lives during years of persecution. They believed in Jesus in a way that is difficult for us to comprehend. Christ’s light shone in a way within them which eventually survived the demise of the world’s greatest empire.

 

When their Roman persecutors passed away, Christian churches remained. When the Dark Ages of ignorance, fear and pestilence plagued the whole of Europe, Christian communities survived. The message of hope and healing, of light and love which people everywhere were seeking, still continued to be preached and presented until God’s light shone through the darkness.

 

Never underestimate the power of Christ and His church on earth. Erin is just one church amongst millions upon millions of other across the world, but what we do here gives glory to God and spreads Christ’s light among us.

 

Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank You for letting Erin be a place of light and love. Grant us Your blessings through all that we give, do and accomplish for You.  In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

 

 

Feather Cloud

Feather Cloud
Originally uploaded by traqair57.

Taken from our church parking lot last night. Click on the picture to go to the larger one to see the details.

Anxious Times

Exodus 14:13a Moses answered the people, "Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today..

 

 

These are anxious times for all of us. Ever since 9/11/2001 all of our lives have changed and the freedoms that we once enjoyed may have gone forever. Bad news, natural disasters, and terrorist attacks seem to occur on a daily basis, making us all feel vulnerable, fragile, and unprotected.

 

In times like these that try men’s souls, the church represents a stability and strength that other institutions, organizations, and nations cannot display. We belong to the Ancient of Days, Who sees all things, all people across the spectrum of Time. And, like the old spiritual says, we are all in God’s hands.

 

The people of Moses’ time felt much the same. They were constantly anxious about what was happening and had no idea of where and when all their troubles would end. That’s when Moses reminded them that God would bring the deliverance they needed. All they had to do was stand firm in the faith and watch what God was doing. We are called to do the same.

 

Prayer: Lord Jesus, in times like these, it is good to know that You are our Rock and Redeemer, our Assurance and Savior. As we support Your church, help us to enable others to experience and feel the same. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

 

Sunsphere City

Sunsphere City
Originally uploaded by traqair57.

One of the reasons I love living in Knoxville, TN is the Sunsphere. it's a great monument and if you've read my blog, you'll know why it brought me here!

Starry Eyed

Genesis 15:5   He took him outside and said, "Look up at the heavens and count the stars--if indeed you can count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be."

 

I love looking at the stars. When I was a kid and things were bad at home, I used to sit up late at night, look out of my bedroom window, and count the stars. It was very therapeutic. It made me forget the troubles in my house and kept me connected to God. The power of so many lights in the midst of so much darkness encouraged my heart and kept hope alive.

 

To me, churches are like stars. They seek to bring light to our communities, becoming a beacon of hope to those whose lives are affected by pain and sickness, crisis and trouble. Erin Church is a bright star in this community. Through the ministries and missions that we serve and support, we are bringing Christ’s light and God’s hope to more people each year. With our promises and pledges, our gifts and giving, we can continue to be one of God’s effective stars in this region.

 

Prayer: Lord Jesus, You are the Bright Morning Star and we are pleased to shine with Your light in this area. Encourage us to make real pledges and promises that will honor Your work and bring others to God’s Kingdom. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

 

Family Sermon

Matthew 10:42             And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward."

 

Every Sunday, when the families come down for the Children’s Sermon, I feel so thankful to God. There are other Presbyterian churches in our town that don't have any young families, or so few that they don't hold a special family time in the worship service. I think that must be so sad, because a church without children has no future and no life. During our worship services, it’s great to see the kids come down to the front with their parents, so that instead of a kids’ sermon, we have a family sermon. And when they pray together at the end, it just gives me a lot of hope in my heart that we're all on the right track.

 

In recent years, we've strengthened our church through the ministries that we accomplish with our children: Nursery, Sunday School, Kids’ Club, Sonshine Company, and MOPS, are just a few of the wonderful programs that provide the children of our church special opportunities to grow in faith, to have fun together, and to foster friendships that will last forever.

 

Erin will certainly not lose its reward for the work that we do with our children. As we reflect upon what, how and why we give to church, let’s remember to support the young souls that God has given us to love, cherish, and grow.

 

Prayer: Lord Jesus, help us to give for the sake of our children. They are a wonderful blessing and we pray that we can continue to support them through what we give and devote to You.  In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen

Keep the Faith

Hebrews 6:12              We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.

 

Keeping the faith requires a lot of hard work, especially in our society. In contrast to fifty years ago, churches are faced with fierce competition for people to do other things on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights. Weekly worship and Christian education become just two other activities that have to be mixed in with a whole lot of other priorities on busy schedules. In other words, we’ve become slaves to timetables of our own making, instead of being servants to the Holy One who makes us and grants us Time.

 

Through the virtues of faith and patience, we experience God’s promises being fulfilled. My fear, as a pastor living in these times, is that there will be an awful lot of disappointed people from the 20^th & 21^st century, who will never get beyond the Pearly Gates simply because they couldn't fit Christ into their busy schedules. And, as a pastor living in these modern times, I am sometimes as guilty of that as anyone else. In the midst of a busy church year, I can easily spend more time preparing, participating, reviewing and being at meetings than being and meeting with God.

 

Faith seems much stronger in simpler times, but the truth is that people in the past also had their share of pressure, stress and burdens. They just put God at the center and worked their lives around Him. Perhaps if we truly want to get through those pearly gates, we'd better start to do the same.

 

Prayer:                        Lord Jesus, faith is all or nothing for You, but for us, it can be inconvenient, challenging and hard to keep. Help us as we struggle to live our busy lives and give us the courage to place You at the center. Lord, enable us not just to keep our faith, but to live it. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

 

Driving Home

Driving Home
Originally uploaded by traqair57.

Getting back from the church after a thriteen hour work day. They didn't tell me this in seminary. Enjoying the traffic passing by. I guess we're all on a journey through the darkness, until we see the light of morning.

It was good to see, hear and feel the rain.

Do Not Give Up

Galatians 6:9             Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

 

Tomorrow, a whole bunch of young people from Knoxville, including my youngest daughter, are heading down to the Mississippi coast to do more clean up in the Katrina devastated areas. It’s more than a year since that terrible hurricane slammed into the Gulf Coast and thousands of people are still trying to clean, tear down, and rebuild their homes. It must be horrendous and extremely stressful. It must seem hopeless and sickening that after all of this time, the area still looks like a lunar landscape.

 

But our young people still want to help. They are willing to give up most of their October break to help the locals pick up the pieces and renew their lives. In years past, young people would have gone down to the beaches to fool around and have wild parties. Times have changed and for these two hundred young souls, helping others takes priority over their holidays.

 

Some of us become weary of helping others and undergo what’s called ‘donor fatigue’, but these young people are an example to all of us that where there are those whose lives are broken, whose needs are great, and whose spirits are depressed, we need to continue to help and not become weary in doing good. And as Paul says, in so doing, we will reap a harvest of God’s blessings if we do not give up.

 

Prayer:             Lord Jesus, be with our young people as they travel down to the Gulf Coast. Let them be Your messengers of hope to those whose lives have been devastated by the hurricanes. Let all the volunteers be transformed by this loving event, so that for the rest of their lives, they will not be weary of doing good. Keep them all safe and when they return, let us learn from them and celebrate their good works. In Your Holy name, we pray. Amen.

Digital Glass - Crusader

Crusader, Saracen, Star of David, Horse, Cross, Crescent Moon, sword, lance, church window and shifting sands all contained in this abstract stained glass window.

Cheerful Giving

Luke 6:38       Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."

 

When I was at High School, I had a part-time job on an ice cream van. For four nights a week, I used to serve up cones, wafers, and popsicles to families all over the sub-divisions where the van traveled. On hot summer nights, the kids would come out in their droves to get their favorite vanilla cone with lots of strawberry syrup.

 

Usually, the van driver served the cones, but some kids wouldn't let him. “We want John to serve us,” they insisted. And when the driver asked why, they would often reply, “Because he gives us more ice cream!”

Christ talks about God doing the same when we give unreservedly to Him and His church.

 

When we give to church, God wants us to do it cheerfully and with generous hearts. By doing so, we honor the blessings and bounty He has given us. And however we give, God will bless us in the same way.

 

Prayer: Lord Jesus, You ask us to give cheerfully, faithfully, and generously so that the ministry You established on earth will continue in our community and throughout the world. Move our hearts to do all that we can to honor and glorify You through our giving. In Your Holy name, we pray. Amen.

 

Psalms & songs

(You can listen to the audio commentary & some Gaelic hymn singing by double clicking here http://hometown.aol.com/traqair/Todaysdev.mp3 - if you get a page of symbols, don't worry, just double click the link again)

Ephesians 5:19 Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord.

There are some remote congregations in the Scottish highlands and islands who have been singing the same worship songs for nearly five hundred years. They don't get caught up in the hype of modern Christian music; instead, they faithfully praise God singing the psalms that their ancestors composed in Scotland when Presbyterianism started to take root.

They sing the psalms unaccompanied and usually in the Gaelic tongue. For someone who comes from the outside to one of these services, the singing is eerie as ancient Scottish melodies and rhythms blend with Shakespearean written psalms. It sounds like a clash of cultures but eventually those psalms were re-sung and the tunes were re-introduced to the mountain people in this region. Sometimes, when I hear us singing Appalachian hymns in church, I can ‘hear’ the Scottish parts in the song.

I would have loved to hear the hymns and psalms that the first Christians sang. I am sure that they reflected parts of the Jewish, Greek and Roman cultures that they came from. It must have been wonderful to be part of a new faith group, with new ideas, and a new excitement about life. Those things would have made Christians sing out with hearts and voices.

When we gather together on Sunday, we have a glorious opportunity to share our faith, our cultures, and our music. God brings us together to praise His Son Jesus Christ with our psalms and hymns. It’s wonderful part of what we do as Christians. It’s a wonderful experience to behold. One day, when we gather again at the feet of Jesus, we will sing songs from all over the world, from different times, places, and cultures that we will instantly know in our hearts and beautifully sing forever.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, You love singing which is why our churches are full of people who love to sing. We praise You with ancient words and modern tunes, with organ music, pianos, and harps, with stringed instruments, drums, and horns. Thank You for the gift of song that You have inspired in the hearts of our people. In Your Holy Name, we sing and pray. Amen.

God Says No

2 Corinthians 12:8, 9a Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.".

Sometimes God says “No.”

Over the years, I have pleaded to God for the healing of others, the mending of broken relationships, and the ability to immediately overcome my problems, only to discover that God isn’t going to do what I ask. It comes as a shock to my system for I’m so used to having God help me out. So, like Paul, instead of dealing with it and letting it go, I pray over and over again thinking that God will eventually cave in and give me what I want. In other words, I’m trying to make God bend His will towards mine.

Eventually, I accept what God has said, sometimes reluctantly, sometimes with relief. God is not helping me out, but He is helping me. He’s helping me to understand that I’m not at the center of His universe. He’s helping me realize that His grace is sufficient for everything I need, as opposed to having His power to achieve everything I want. It’s a hard lesson, but it makes me more aware that He is the Sovereign of life, the universe, and everything.

Perhaps you’re struggling with God and you want Him to sort out all of your troubles. Perhaps, like me, you’ve approached Him time and time again about a particular situation, person, or problem. Perhaps you believe that the time isn’t right or that you just have to pray more, be more patient, or have more faith. Think about what you’re praying for and honestly ask yourself this question: ‘Has God already said “No,” but I’m just not listening?’

Prayer: Lord God, we pray for the gift of discernment, which is the ability to understand each situation we experience. Help us to recognize and realize that Your ways are not our ways and that Your thoughts are not our thoughts. Teach us to be patient and enable to take Your “No” as an answer to some of our prayers. In Christ’s name, we humbly pray. Amen.

Prisoner

Psalm 17:12 They are like a lion hungry for prey, like a great lion crouching in cover.
Acts 16:30 He then brought them out and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"




I like going to the zoo, although I haven’t been to one for years. The last time I was there, I had a sad experience. It took place next to the lion’s cage. As I watched the king of the beasts, I felt sorry for him. He was supposed to be dangerous and mighty, wild and free, but this lion was quiet, brooding, and sad. He should have been running wild across the African plains; instead, he seemed lonely and isolated, downhearted and trapped.

Now I know that if I went into that cage, I would have been mauled to death, but it just seemed so unnatural, so unreal. In other zoos, I had seen lions that were kept in wide open spaces called Safari parks, and they seemed to be strong, vibrant, and menacing. This poor lion couldn’t even look me in the eye and every time I stared at him, he looked away. His spirit was broken and his reason for living was gone.

I’ve seen people like that, who’ve lost their way and found themselves trapped by their own choices. You can see the sadness in their eyes and you can hear it in their voices. They want to be free from all of the pressures, stress, and responsibilities that life has encaged them with. They want to be who they were meant to be, and not whom the world has shaped them to be.

In a passage from Acts, we read about a jailer who wants to be saved. His life has become a prison and his responsibilities have trapped his soul. He almost committed suicide because he thought that he had lost everything, but Paul and Silas were there to reassure and re-strengthen him. Their honesty touched his heart and their faith changed his life. Instead of committing suicide, he committed his life to Christ.

Sometimes life can be a burden and we can lose heart. Illness, work, family and money can make us feel trapped and imprisoned, ineffective and isolated. During those bleak moments, Christ sends messengers of hope, bearers of the word, and comforters of His grace. He saves us from ourselves. He helps us rediscover our purpose, our meaning, our reason to be.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, when life overburdens us and our responsibilities overwhelm us, be near to us and carry us. When things go wrong or when we make bad choices, return us to Your arms and embrace us with Your love. And when we are free, help us to help those who are still imprisoned in their hearts, their lives, and souls. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

Anxiety Attack

Luke 22:44 And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.

I can remember taking an anxiety attack about 4-5 years ago. I woke up one night with shortness of breath and my heart was racing. I didn’t know what was happening and I feared the worst. I had no chest pains and it was over within a matter of minutes. I was drenched with sweat and shivered for quite a while. It was an awful moment and not one that I would wish on my worst enemy.

Christ’s experience was entirely different. This wasn’t an anxiety attack that He underwent in the Garden of Gethsemane. This was a moment of deep anguish. He knew what He was facing and He feared the worst. He perfectly understood what God’s plan of salvation entailed. This was the make or break moment for Jesus. He could either face death and fight sin, or He could flee from pain and forsake every sinner. It was the hardest choice anyone has had to make. No wonder Christ sweated so profusely. It was all or nothing. There was no other way to win the world for God.

We all undergo moments of doubt, anxiety, and fear in our lives. We all face times of uncertainty, hardship and tragedy. During those frightful and worrying events, we can depend upon Christ to perfectly understand what we are enduring, because He has been through similar times. He didn’t abandon the world in Gethsemane. He will certainly not forsake us either.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, sometimes we get so caught up with our own lives, our own worries, and our own anxieties that we forget to rely upon You. Instead of releasing our burdens and casting our cares upon You, we tend to keep hold of what we’ve got. Forgive us for being foolish and faithless. Help us to allow You to support and uphold us during anxious and worrying times. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.