In nothing be anxious; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
Philippians 4:6 ASV
Last week was Easter Sunday. Leading up to it I was reminded of a sermon by our pastor from a little while ago; he was talking about prayer and fasting. When was the last time we prayed and fasted over something? An issue, a situation, a health scare- when was the last time we sacrificed in order to focus on bringing something before God. This is something we are repeatedly told to do, yet how many of us practice this discipline? Why do we not practice it regularly? Are we scared of the answer? I was reminded of the story of Esther in the Bible and how she prayed and fasted for God to save her people and give her strength to go before the King and ask for them to be spared. The end result turned out favorably for Esther but not so for everyone who prayed and fasted in the Bible.
It was the night before the crucifixion. Jesus took 3 of his closest disciples out to the garden of Gethsemane to pray through the night. Even being the Divine Son of God there were still things Jesus didn’t want to do, and He did not want to hang on that cross. I can’t imagine what it must have been like to know what a grisly death was so soon to befall you. When they get to the garden Jesus leaves the 3 disciples to go off to another area of the garden to pray privately. He prays so fervently that there are little beads of blood, rather than sweat, running down his face because He is so stressed. (Incidentally sweating blood is something that can occur only when the body is under such stress that the body can barely take it.)
Jesus pauses praying for a minute and goes to check on his disciples, and what does He find? They are asleep! How could they?? Talk about having friends you can count on! He wakes them up, rebukes them and then goes back to praying. They didn’t know what was coming, But Jesus did. He prays this cup pass from Him, but not His will but the Father’s will be done.
We all know the end of this story. Jesus does have to endure a grisly death so that we can live eternally with him. Jesus plead with His Father and still had to endure the cross for us. This didn’t mean that His prayers were wasted, they drew Him close to the Father when He needed it most.
This is something we all can learn from- I know I certainly can! It isn’t about the outcome with prayer and fasting. It is about being faithful to the commands we are given and that even if life doesn’t go the way we want it to,being faithful to our God who is always faithful to us- even to the point of sending his Son to suffer on a cross so that we might live eternally with Him.
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