SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/19/2024 7:32 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-3 “Sorrow”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
26:36-38
Message of the verses: “36 Then Jesus came
with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to His disciples, "Sit
here while I go over there and pray." 37 And He took with Him Peter and
the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and distressed. 38 Then He said
to them, "My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here
and keep watch with Me.’”
John MacArthur gives us some good advice to believers
as he writes: “Every Christian at times
faces temptations, trials, and heartaches that threaten to overwhelm him. In the depts. of such testings, even our
dearest and most spiritual friends are unable to provide the needed solace and
strength. God expects believers to
encourage and strengthen one another, and that is an essential means through
which He builds up His children (see Luke 22:32; Acts 18:23; Heb. 10:25). But there are times when only direct,
intimate communion with the Lord in intense prayer can provide the strength to
meet their desperate need.
“Jesus
ministry began and ended with relentless temptation directly by Satan. After He was baptized by John the Baptist,
Jesus went into the wilderness of Judea and fasted for forty days and
nights. At the end of that period the
devil tempted Him three times, and each time Jesus responded with Scripture
(Matt. 4:3-10). While Jesus agonized in
the garden on the last night of His earthly life, the devil tempted Him again
three times, and each time He responded by praying earnestly to His Father.
“On
both occasions, the temptations were private, personal solicitations directly
by Satan to Jesus, and apart from His revelation we would know nothing of
them. The two weapons He used were
Scripture and prayer, weapons the Lord provides each of His children (see Eph.
6:17-18).” I will now quote Ephesians 6:17-18 “17 And take THE HELMET OF
SALVATION, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 With all prayer and petition
pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert
with all perseverance and petition for all the saints.”
Jesus
now goes into the garden with the three disciples, and He began to be grieved
and distressed. Jesus had before
experienced grief and distress over sin and death before, and also over isolation
from His Father would bring. It was
always in the plan of God for Him to come to earth to suffer and die for the
sins of the world. However the climax of
His anguish now has began to intensify like never before as His becoming sin in
our place and His consequent estrangement from God drew near. The result was that His very soul was repulsed
by the encroachment of His sin bearing, not because of the physical pain that
He would endure but because of His taking upon Himself there the full magnitude
and defilement of all man’s iniquity. As
we will see later on Jesus will be separated from His Father who will be the
One to take out on Him all of the sins of the world, and so having that sin
placed on Him and being separated from His Father for the first time is what
would cause so much distress upon our Lord.
Sunday
mornings are at times difficult for me as I have to teach our Sunday school
class, and the most difficult part is that today and next Sunday will be the
last times I teach this class unless the Lord has different ideas for me. Our class will go into another class for the
summer and then we will see what happens after that. It is a matter of prayer for me.
5/19/2024 7:58 AM
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