Prayer Of The Lamb

Luke 22:39–46 NIV

39 Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. 40 On reaching the place, he said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.” 41 He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, 42 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” 43 An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. 44 And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. 45 When he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. 46 “Why are you sleeping?” he asked them. “Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.”

Growing up I was deeply into martial arts and was always enamored by the thought of these martial arts masters up before dawn to meditate and practice their art. The self-discipline of it.

Then I would think of the super saints who where up before the sun as well to meditate and pray on the scriptures.

Growing up I thought my grandmother was a super saint,

Many weekday mornings when I would get up for school the nights I stayed there I would see a bowl of her oatmeal and her bible on the table. Usually to the book of Proverbs.

That impacted me greatly.

Some translations of the Bible say customs instead of as usual. I personally prefer the word custom because of the intentionality of it.

Jesus had a custom or a habit to go out and Pray, to get separated from the hustle and bustle of life and pray.

There are two habits being exemplified here. The obvious is prayer but the second is rest. More than once Jesus was recorded getting away to be alone with the Father.

How much of a blessing it is for us when we do like wise, but how many of us do it, and how many do it regularly?

Our habits can either lead us into sin or away from sin.

Growing up I heard all the time that practice does not make perfect, it makes permanent.

What habits we practice becomes more concrete in behaviour.

Habits such as complaining, check gratitude , the check that idol in the heart.

Habitual complaining especially over the petty will destroy your relationships

Secondly he expressed his wants but shows us the need to submit our will to the Father’s will. It is healthy to express what we want but we also have to submit it to the Lord as well.

Many times I have been in prayer about something and said “Lord you know my heart on the matter, but I pray that your will be done”.

Again it is ok to express to the Lord what is on our hearts, in fact we need to make a habit communicating to the Lord what is on our hearts.

But we cannot let what is on our hearts try to take the wheel of life. when we do it always ends in a mess.

We are to take what is on our hearts and submit it to the Lord. The more we do this the more we find ourselves living in His will.

Lastly we can learn the importance of prayer, it is key in the prevention of temptation.

Fire Bible Chapter 22

Jesus’ words teach us how important prayer is in helping us to avoid and overcome evil. The fact that they neglected Jesus’ warning, which he made both at the beginning and the end of their time on the Mount of Olives that night (vv. 40, 46), may be the reason that the disciples later deserted and even denied him It is of extreme importance that we have a consistent prayer life so that the trials and temptations of life do not cause us to fail Christ.

We all have a choice, we can either stay so busy that one wind blows and life is messed up, or we can choose to submit and when winds blow we can stand strong knowing who is in control.

Take Home question: What do your habits say about you?