Morning by Morning—Daily Prayer Journey with Tommy Hays: "This Cup" of Our Salvation in the Garden of Gethsemane

Thursday, April 09, 2020

"This Cup" of Our Salvation in the Garden of Gethsemane - Morning by Morning, April 9, 2020

Morning by Morning, April 9 - "This Cup" of Our Salvation in the Garden of Gethsemane

Good morning, Lord Jesus. On our journey to the cross this Holy Week, I seek to follow in Your steps and learn from Your ways. ...

"Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane; and He said to His disciples, 'Sit here while I go over there and pray.' And taking with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, He began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then He said to them, 'My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.' And going a little farther, He fell on His face and prayed, saying, 'My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.' ... Again, for a second time, He went away and prayed, 'My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, Your will be done.' ... He went away a prayed for the third time, saying the same words again" (Matthew 26:36-44).

"This cup" of Your sufferings was the cup of our salvation. "This cup" was the offering of Your body and Your blood as the eternal Sacrifice in complete trust and surrender to the will and purposes of God. And in Your prayer of surrender and Your choice of complete trust, You drank of "this cup" for us -- that we could be forgiven and free, healed and whole, restored and redeemed to live forever with You in deeply personal relationship with God through His mercy and love.

"This cup" was the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah almost eight hundred years before, of the Servant of God who would suffer and die for us, in humble obedience and faithful surrender to the will of God:

"He was despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. As we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised and we did not esteem Him.

Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgressions of My people He was stricken... Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief When You make His soul an Offering for our sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors" (Isaiah 53:3-12).

"This cup" cost You more than we can comprehend. Yet as You wrestled in prayer with our Father in the Garden, You chose the path of obedience, the path of the faithful Servant -- "Nevertheless, not as I will but as You will."

In choosing to drink of "this cup" You were showing us the way -- the way of intimacy, humility, obedience, surrender, and trust. Your prayers in the Garden of Gethsemane prepared the way of the Lord for Your victory on the Cross at Calvary.

On this day of Holy Week, on a day we remember the Passover and Your journey to the Cross, as we remember so much of what happened that holy day long ago -- the Last Supper, the washing of Your disciples' feet, Your betrayal by Judas, Your arrest by the soldiers -- we remember Your prayer of complete surrender and trust in the perfect will and purposes of God.

As You prepared the way of the Lord for us, in intimacy, humility, obedience, surrender, and trust, may Your Spirit prepare the way of the Lord in us. You show us the way, for You are "the Way and the Truth and the Life" (John 14:6). May we pray as You prayed, "Nevertheless, not as I will but as You will." In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays

My Friend, may you come to the place of deeper intimacy, humility, obedience surrender, and trust in the perfect will and purposes of God, yielding to His will, in response to all He has done for us, in Jesus' name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friend!