Prayer Changes Things! The Prayer in the Garden

Margie and Debra boarded the elevator going to the fifth floor to the office where they worked.
“Did you get to go to church last night?” Debra asked. “Our Pastor has been teaching on the book of Ruth on Wednesday nights.”
“That is a great story in the Bible. Actually I visited my cousin’s church where they are studying prayer.”
“Oh, good. Tell me something new you learned.”
Prayer was something that Debra was very interested in and Margie had been trying to share with her different aspects of prayer when she could.
“We talked about the prayer in the garden,” Margie said, as they walked to get some coffee before starting work. “I’ll show it to you in Luke 22.”
She pulled her small Message Bible out of her purse and looked up the verse while Debra poured them both some coffee.

“”Leaving there, he went, as he so often did, to Mount Olives. The disciples followed him. When they arrived at the place, he said, ‘Pray that you don’t give in to temptation.’ He pulled away from them about a stone’s throw, knelt down, and prayed, ‘Father, remove this cup from me. But please, not what I want. What do you want?’ At once an angel from heaven was at his side, strengthening him. He prayed all the harder. Sweat, wrung from him like drops of blood, poured off his face...” Luke 22:39-44

“There are so many things the Pastor could have talked about concerning this passage.” Margie began. “There is the way Jesus prayed, the fact that an angel strengthened Him and the way he told his disciples to pray not to give in to temptation. But we learned about the prayer itself.”
“The part where he asks God what he wants?”
That is the part. First Jesus asked that the cup is removed.”
“What does that mean?” Debra asked. “What cup?”
“The Pastor explained that the cup was a term used to express great joy or great sorrow. The cup Jesus has asked to pass is his own suffering and death.”
“I can understand that.”
“The important part is that Jesus wants what God his father wanted rather than what he wanted. It is something for us to follow today.”
“Give me an example.”
“Okay. Remember when we talked about Phil and how we need to be a witness to him?”
“Yes. I am trying to but it is hard.”
“You are saying to God when you pray for Phil and witness to him that you choose God’s way over your own. In your flesh, you don’t want to witness or to pray. Right?”
“That is true. I understand. God’s way is what I need to follow.”
“There is a story in Acts 21 about Paul. A prophet names Agabus came to him and told him that he would be bound and delivered to the Gentiles. Paul said, as all his friends stood around crying and upset:

“”Why all this hysteria? Why do you insist on making a scene and making it even harder for me? You’re looking at this backward. The issue in Jerusalem is not what they do to me, whether arrest or murder, but what the Master Jesus does through my obedience. Can’t you see that?”
Acts 21:12-13 the Message Bible

“Wow! He sounds just like Jesus,” Debra exclaimed.
“Now you understand...” Margie said with a smile.

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