Praying-through…

Praying through the hard stuff (like anxiety and sorrow and unfaithfulness) was the focus of this week. And honestly… IT! WAS! HARD!

Most at the table agreed, cultivating a passionate practice of prayer is intense messy work. Yet… perhaps this is the only work worth pursuing. The only work that builds spiritual muscle and grows faith. Maybe, just maybe, this is all the work we ever really need to do. Work that requires persistence, endurance, and simply the grit to keep showing up… moment by moment… day by day… in and out of seasons…

Jesus showed us the way to pray-through in the Garden of Gethsemane. Facing the stormy trial of betrayal and crucifixion Jesus grabs a few of his closest friends and goes to the garden. He leaves the disciples on the perimeter and ventures further away to be alone.

We wonder what to make of this.
Is Jesus anxious…? fearful…? tempted to find a way out…?
If his response to the disciples’ failure to stay awake indicates what was going on inside of Jesus, then Yes.

Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.
Matthew 26:41 ESV

Wrestling with the temptation to go another way, to lay down and die of sorrow right there in the garden, or to run away from the suffering may be the thing that drove Jesus to prayer. Because we know Jesus was tempted in the same ways we are, but He overcame every temptation.

What can we learn from Him in this moment? Can we follow his example when we face temptation? Is it this simple? Our teacher says, “Just because something is simple, doesn’t make it easy.”

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Let’s look a little closer at Jesus in the garden. First, he didn’t go alone. He willingly asked those closest to Him to pray — to stay awake and pray. The sorrow building in his soul would need support. Friends who would be praying and present. People to lean on when the battle raged.

Leaving His people to pray, Jesus goes deeper into the garden. A place of solitude and silence where He could talk to the Father. It was here in the deepest part of the garden Jesus fell flat on His face and asked God to make another plan, yet fully surrendered to God’s will.

Jesus returned to pray this prayer three times. Back and forth he went. Praying… seeking support from his friends. (How they responded is another post all together.) Going back to pray some more. Pray… rest… pray… rest… pray… rest.

Maybe three times is all it took for Jesus to complete the praying-through of this hard moment. To defeat and overcome the temptation to go another way, Ready himself to take the next step.

This is a picture of praying-through. Praying-through hard emotions that tempt us to find another way. Like sorrow and anger. Like fear rising and sparking our hearts to beat faster. Emotions that leave us flat on our face begging God: Can’t this be done a different way? I think sometimes we want our prayers to be proper, unemotional, and clean. But this wasn’t Jesus’ way in the garden, and it is not His way now.

Jesus is all about hearing the prayers of the angry, sad, and anxious. He came to clean up the mess we made, are making, and will continue to make. There’s no way to clean ourselves up and look presentable enough to converse with God. Put-your-best-face-on straightlaced prayer is not authentic tell-your-very-best friend communication. It’s more like saying “hello” to a stranger in passing, answering questions in a job interview, making small talk in the grocery line. There’s no passion in that kind of prayer, and it certainly won’t get you through when the hard stuff shows up, nor will it fool the God you’re talking to.

Like Jesus, we are sons and daughters of the King. We have an open invitation to come, no matter how we feel or how we look. In the days we are all put together, and the moments we’re a crazy mess. The invitation still stands. Jesus made sure of it.

There is no condemnation nor separation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Through the forgiveness of Jesus, we find a gracious invitation to pray, to come boldly before the High Priest who has already paid the price and spilt the blood required. So just come. Come after you have had a season of neglecting prayer. Come after you forgot. Come after you chose to wander for a while.

Just Come.

Shelby Turner, Pray: Cultivating A Passionate Practice of Prayer (emphasis mine)

And… don’t forget to bring along some friends.

Amen.