Teach Us to Pray Part 1 By John McCallum

I should first of all express my own appreciation of the invitation to come and to speak with
you this weekend.
I do account it a pleasure and a privilege indeed.
I recall being with you previously and I enjoyed myself immensely on that occasion.
We had Mr. Siebert preaching with us a number of weeks ago in St. George's over our communion
weekend.
He preached for us on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and twice on the Lord's day.
His ministry was greatly appreciated.
It's good for congregations to have a change of voice and a change of presentation.
I know that the St. George's congregation greatly were taken with the ministry of Fred
Siebert and they had never met him before but several of them asked me particularly
to pass on our good wishes to him and I certainly will take back from you the greetings to St.
George's and I would also convey to you the greetings from St. George's.
So I account it a privilege and I trust that we shall benefit together as we look at this
theme of prayer.
Now I want to read further in the scriptures because over this weekend I hope to be considering
from the Gospel of Matthew chapter 26 the experience of our Lord Jesus Christ in the
garden of Gethsemane and I hope to take all our sessions from this portion of scripture
beginning at verse 36 in Matthew chapter 26 where we have an example of our Lord Jesus
Christ praying and I want to try to extract from this portion some principles to encourage
us to pray but let us just read again from Matthew chapter 26 reading at verse 36.
Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane and he said to them sit
here while I go over there and pray.
He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him and he began to be sorrowful
and troubled.
Then he said to them my soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.
Stay here and keep watch with me.
Going a little further he fell with his face to the ground and prayed my father it would
be possible may this cup be taken from me yet not as I will but as you will.
Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping.
Could you men not watch with me for one hour he asked Peter.
Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.
The spirit is willing and despite what the NIV has to say here it's better to translate
this the flesh is weak.
The spirit is willing but the flesh the whole fallen nature not just the body the whole
flesh is weak.
He went away a second time and prayed my father if it is not possible for this cup to be taken
away unless I drink it may your will be done.
When he came back he again found them sleeping because their eyes were heavy.
So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time saying the same thing.
Now we have already been reminded of the importance of understanding what prayer is in terms of
a proper appreciation of who God is and what we are before God and the aspect of communicating
with God and I want to follow on from that and to build upon that and to make the basic
assumption that if you and I are Christians then we are indeed seeking to pray to God
but I'm also going to make another assumption and that assumption is that we're finding
it difficult to pray there is probably no area in any of our lives in which we have
such difficulties and indeed in a sense barriers to overcome in this area of prayer and if
you and I were to speak frankly one to another I'm sure we would all confess that if there
is any area of weakness in our lives any area of dissatisfaction with our activity
as a Christian it would have to do with this realm of prayer because we must understand
that prayer is not only the highest thing that we will ever do in this life it is also
the hardest thing it is the most spiritual activity of life and because it is such a
spiritual thing it is therefore such a difficult thing the more spiritual anything is the more
difficult it is for us to perform because we must overcome the world and the flesh and
the devil so to do these particular things and what I want to do this weekend is to encourage
us to pray to give us a certain general principles not in order simply to inform us but to inspire
us to pray and I can think of no greater example of prayer in the whole of scripture than the
prayer life of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and if you and I are followers of Christ and
if we are responding to that basic invitation that comes from Christ follow me then he is
inviting us to emulate him he is inviting us to follow him in his treatment of people and his
reading of the scripture and so on but he is also inviting us to follow him in terms of the life of
prayer to listen to what he has to say concerning prayer and to observe what he himself does in the
life of prayer and it was out of observing Christ praying you may remember on that occasion that
his disciples asked him Lord teach us to pray as John taught his disciples to pray and those
disciples on that occasion they asked for further instruction in prayer because they were observing
Christ praying he was praying in a certain place and they knew that he was praying and they were
watching him praying and they understood that part of his mysterious power and part of his success
as a preacher of the Word of God a had to do with this communication with God that he himself a had
in the life of prayer and they recognized that he was a master in the art of prayer and there was
something happening a when Christ was praying and they desired that he who understood prayer
that he would indeed teach them a how to pray and so what I want to do then is to look at this
episode which is the fullest account in the gospel records a of the prayer activity of our Lord
Jesus Christ it is by no means the only account the scripture has a great deal to say about the
spiritual life of Christ and it has a great deal to tell us about his prayer life but this is the
fullest account and it is worthy of some consideration in detail because there are
many many points that we could they consider a from a consideration of this experience of
Christ now I don't have time over this weekend in the five sessions to exhaust and I'm not
pretending to exhaust this particular passage of scripture but I do want to extract simple lessons
and principles in order that we will be encouraged to engage in this prayer life that the scripture
commands us invites us to engage in all the days of our life the Apostle reminds us that we are to
pray without a ceasing well I want this session and indeed in the other sessions to emphasize
some elementary and simple things and I want to begin at this point when we come to consider the
prayer life of Christ and in this particular occasion the first point that I want to extract
is this the activity of prayer the actual activity of prayer and I'm beginning at this
most elementary point because this is where we must begin and this is where this consideration
of Christ in the garden begins we're told that he went with his disciples into this particular
garden and the two sons of Zebedee and Peter and he took them with him and then he went away about
a stone's throw from them and he went away to pray he fell with his face to the ground and he
prayed and the point to notice about this a passage of scripture is that Christ actually
prayed he didn't discuss prayer he wasn't preaching about prayer he wasn't instructing on this
occasion the disciples to pray he wasn't reading a book about prayer he was actually engaging in
prayer he was doing a what is required to do in the life of prayer and I want to begin there
because every single one of us I'm sure is a conscious of the fact that we ought to pray and
we ought to pray more frequently and perhaps we ought to pray for longer periods of time and we
ought to be more specific in prayer and so on we agree in all of these things but the point is we
often don't do it and there may well be times in our lives when we go perhaps for a days and
perhaps even weeks tragically and we don't actually engage in the activity of prayer but
when the Bible is speaking about prayer it's not asking us to approve of prayer or to understand
what prayer is or to read about it or hear about it or discuss it it is asking us actually to do
it and it is asking us to do something that it describes as prayer and as we shall see later on
prayer is a very specific activity it is something in which we must a cease to do other things in
order to give our time a to prayer and I'm emphasizing that because sometimes you hear
people say for example that every act with them is a prayer that every word is a prayer that every
thought is a prayer well if you ever hear somebody say that everything that they do is a prayer you
are listening to someone who is making a confession that they never pray because if we are praying
we're not doing everything we're not doing other things prayer is doing something very specific and
prayer is not washing the dishes or driving the car we can pray I suppose in a sense doing those
things but prayer is an activity in and of itself and in order to engage in the life of prayer we
must cease doing other things in order to engage in doing this particular thing now that is so
elementary but it is something I feel that we need to emphasize because it is this it is at the point
of actual activity in the life of prayer where we fall down we may read the scripture and know
what the Bible says but we find in our lives the difficulty of actually doing what the Bible
encourages us to do in the life of prayer so what I want to emphasize first of all in the life of
Christ is that he actually went away and he actually engaged in prayer now there are certain
interesting things about the activity of Christ's prayer on this particular occasion and the first
thing I would emphasize about his prayer on this occasion is that it was a prayer in what we might
call a hard time or a time of trouble and in the book of Psalms in Psalm number 50 at verse 15 we
are commanded by God to call upon him in the day of trouble and he will deliver us and we shall
glorify him now that is a most important and indeed it is a most instructive a exhortation
from God's Word and it comes to us because God understands our psychology perfectly well and
God understands something about us and that is that the times of trouble are perhaps the times
when the very last thing we do is pray because in order to pray as we shall see we must have a
certain confident that God is listening to us that God will bless us and so on well we shall come to
that but the point is sometimes our lives may be filled with trouble and we imagine that God is
perhaps punishing us for our sins and that God perhaps is turning his ear away from us and what
is the point of praying to God when our Providence seems to be indicating that God's favor is not
toward us that somehow rather a somehow or other he is casting us off or casting us out and there
is no point in praying to God in these terrible circumstances which seem to be indicative of his
anger and displeasure toward us and we perhaps find in our circumstances in these days of trouble
no evidence that we can point to of the favor of God toward us and we lose heart as Christians and
I'm speaking not only because I've discussed these things with people but I myself have experienced
those things and I like you have gone through those times of trouble when there are dark clouds
on our horizon and they will come to us all make no mistake about that we're all going to experience
the days of trouble and these are the days when our confidence that God will hear us as individuals
perhaps erodes away and it is in those very circumstances when everything seems to be so
dark when perhaps our cause seems to be declining that we perhaps begin to lose confidence or the
ability or even the desire to pray and the point about this prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ is that
this for him was a day of trouble my soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death and that
is a tremendously perceptive statement of Scripture for us to understand the powers of
darkness were abroad that night he tells us that in another gospel when the enemies came this is
your hour and the powers of darkness and our Lord Jesus Christ as he was contemplating the cross of
Calvary he understood that there was a terrible darkness and a terrible experience that he must
enter into in a few short hours we can never begin to understand what he experienced on the
cross of Calvary for our sins and it has begun already he is now beginning to feel the tremendous
burden and the darkness involved in being made sin for the sins of his people my soul is exceeding
so and such was the heaviness and the darkness weighing upon him that it was almost killing him
this for him was a time of trouble this was a time for him when already the smile of God's face was
beginning from his perception of things to be turned away and in the cross of Calvary we know
my God my God why has thou forsaken me I'm quoting from the authorized version which I'm more
acquainted with and perhaps you'll find that most of my quotations will be in the King James mode
but the point is this when his soul was exceeding sorrowful even unto death when he was concerned
for the disciples when he realized that the powers of darkness were increasingly being unleashed upon
him he went away and he prayed and he prayed and he prayed and as we shall see he kept on praying
saying the same things now we might ask the question well why did he pray in this hour of
darkness and time of trouble and I'm going to suggest you that there are many reasons we could
give an answer to that question but I'm going to suggest to you this the most fundamental reason
of all is because he always prayed in all circumstances he prayed and the times of
darkness would come or the times of plenty and prosperity could come but it made no difference
whether times were hard or times were good Christ would pray and I'm going to suggest that there is
a link an intimate link between whether we're going to pray in times of trouble and whether
we pray in ordinary times if I can so use this word ordinary times because I'm going to suggest
to you this that if we are going to pray in a time of trouble that time that time of prayer in the
time of trouble is going to be simply an over spilling an outflowing of the life of prayer
that we engage in in the ordinary events of life in other words if you and I are neglecting prayer
in the daily affairs of our lives we are making a great mistake if we imagine for one moment that
we will then know how to pray when trouble comes it is more difficult to pray in times of trouble
and in order to pray in those particular experiences we must have developed the habit of
prayer in the ordinary affairs of life and if you and I are going to be praying when times are hard
it must be a flow on from praying consistently when times are not hard and we know from the
gospel records that our Lord Jesus Christ was a man who prayed every day he spent whole nights
in prayer and we'll touch on that just in a moment also but you remember how the psalmist put it in
Psalm 145 verses 1 & 2 where he was praising the Lord and then he makes this tremendous statement
every day that I rise I will praise thee in other words the psalmist was making a resolution and the
resolution was that when he arose in the morning he was going to make a conscious effort that today
I'm going to praise the name of God today and the psalmist was perfectly aware that there would be
many things in his day by day experience in which he would be conscious of the blessings of God
there would be other days when he was not so conscious of the blessings of God but every day
whether I'm conscious or not whether it's a dark and a cloudy day or not I am going to praise the
name of God and I'm suggesting that that is the key and the clue our Lord Jesus Christ would never
have dreamt for one moment of not praying on this particular occasion because he was so used to
praying in all the various circumstances of life and so it must be with you and with me but there's
something else I would emphasize about the activity of prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ on this
particular occasion not only is it a time of trouble and not only is it an on flow and an
outcome of the fact that he was praying constantly day by day but also notice and remember this
prayer that we record have recorded here for us took place at night this was sometime perhaps
after midnight it's hard to judge just precisely the timing of those final hours of our Lord Jesus
Christ but we certainly know that before the sun arose the following morning he was already
arrested and taken to the high priest we're told of the a cock crowing and we know what time that
was and so on so this experience in the garden of Gethsemane probably took place either very
late at night round about midnight or into the early hours of the morning and again we are being
reminded of our most basic biblical principle and that is the a fact that if we're going to engage
in the life of prayer there are going to be times when we will be praying at night there will be
times when we will be praying throughout the night the psalmist speaks of meditating upon
God in the night watches psalm 16 speaks of the psalmist crying to God during the night psalm 17
psalm 22
in those last days of his life we're told of how
Jerusalem
hectic a final week before his crucifixion he must have been very tired because he each night
he was going out of the city late at night returning to the city again early in the morning
teaching daily in the temple late at night retiring from the city he must have been very
tired as a man and yet still we find him engaging in the activity of prayer if any if ever a man
would have an excuse to lay down his head and sleep now and take his rest it was our Lord
Jesus Christ but he knew that the issues were such that he must not cease to pray on this
particular occasion and talking about it is not sufficient and it's not sufficient for you and
for me if we are going to learn to pray we must learn to pray by taking the first step of prayer
and that is actually doing what the bible describes as the activity of prayer and that
means very elementary things it must it means that we must begin and like everything else in
life I suppose the beginning is the hardest we sometimes stand with our big toe in the pool of
water wondering whether to take the plunge and we'll never take the plunge unless we take the
plunge unless we do it we'll never do it and everything must begin and if we're going to pray
we must begin and there come times in our lives when we must resolutely say to ourselves it is now
time for me to pray and there are many things to be done this world is full of activities lawful
activities things that are even for the glory of God but prayer must begin we must become habituated
to prayer we must stop doing other things and stop thinking about other things in order to
begin to do and to think about prayer we must say to ourselves it's time now for me to pray
the activity of prayer and I would emphasize something very important about this I know that
time is flashing past so very quick but I'd emphasize this the activity of prayer must be
a regular thing I don't have time to expand that but we've already heard of how the pharisees they
were punctilious in setting apart time to pray and in the scriptures of the old testament we have a
morning prayers and afternoon prayers or a noon time prayers and evening prayers and it is a good
practice for us to have set times for prayer and we must be clear about the activity of prayer in
these set times it's not for God's benefit indeed prayer is not for God's benefit at all prayer is
for God's glory but it's not for God's benefit prayer is for my benefit and it's not that God
needs me to pray three times a day God doesn't need me to do anything for God but I need to pray
three times a day in other words it is for my own need for my own spiritual strength and stability
and the ability to understand the things of God it is for my sake that I need to engage in prayer
and I need to engage in prayer at set times and become habituated to the life of prayer and so
that's the first general point that I want to emphasize now I'm not trying to hammer you I'm
not trying to come down hard and critical I'm trying to encourage us because we all find it
difficult to pray and I have no doubt that on this particular experience our Lord Jesus
Christ found it difficult to pray because as we shall see on another occasion we read in Luke's
gospel of how he was in an agony in prayer and his sweat was falling like great drops of blood there
was a struggle involved in the ministry of prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ in the garden of Gethsemane
and we'll come to that on another occasion also but that's the first point that I want
to emphasize now the second thing I want us to notice about this prayer of Christ in the garden
of Gethsemane is the fact that he separated himself from others in order to pray we read
of how he took his three disciples those three inner group of disciples James and John and Peter
and he took them alone with him but then we read also how even from those three privileged men
he separated himself a little further and he went away to pray and there is a sense in which this
also is a model for you and for me to follow we were reading together in the gospel according to
Matthew in chapter six and our Lord Jesus Christ there is on the one hand a warning us against the
danger of a false prayer like the Pharisee like the hypocrites and the heathen and then on the
other hand he's giving us instruction concerning true prayer when you pray this is the way to pray
and the very first thing that he tells us about the way to pray is to go into your closet go into
your room and there pray now he's not saying that the only place to pray is in your room or in
private and in secret that's not what he's saying but he is enunciating a principle that there's a
tremendous danger that we will pray in public but not in private and one of the greatest temptations
I would suggest I would just throw this throw this in as a public speaker in God's church
and a public prayer in God's church one of the greatest dangers that I find is the temptation
to pray longer in public before a congregation than to pray in private and our Lord warns us
against that that's the mark of hypocrisy and if I pray longer before a man in public than I'm ever
willing to pray before God in secret then I'm playing the part of a hypocrite and we must guard
ourselves against that public display because that was the mark of the prayer of the Pharisee
they love to be seen by men and to be heard by men for their many words and they of course got
the reward the applause of men but that was the only reward that they would ever get so our Lord
is saying to us in Matthew chapter 6 and verse 9 onwards when you pray go away into your closet
and pray and do so in secret because ultimately true prayer is a most secret and a most personal
thing and in the scripture record in the gospel records we find our Lord Jesus Christ doing that
very thing he went into away into the wilderness for example and he prayed he went away into the
mountains and he prayed he prayed with the multitudes he prayed with his disciples
but he also prayed on his own a way where there were no men to admire no one to hear and what
he was praying we would love to hear but the scripture is silent and the disciples never
heard him perhaps they did not even know that he was praying because they were fast asleep
and while the men of this world were sleeping our Lord was away praying to God in secret and the
point that I wanted to emphasize is not that you and I go away into the mountains or the wilderness
is to pray it may be that there are occasions when we ought to do that very thing but what I
am saying is we must learn to separate ourselves from others in order to pray prayer comes from the
depths of my most innermost being my personal my secret place a prayer Paul reminds us in
Romans 8 is sometimes a groan which cannot be uttered we cannot share our
essentials of prayer with our fellow men it must be done in the secret place
and it seems to me that in this connection with having the secret separate aspect of prayer
that the scripture also emphasizes something very wonderful in a strange kind of roundabout way but
yet it's there in the scripture and that is to have a secret place of prayer a place that is
associated with us in our secret communication with God you find this in the old testament as
well as the new testament brought out very clearly you remember for example Abraham we're told how he
built an altar and there we're told that he called upon the name of the lord and then he passed by
that way again you remember and he came to the place where he had built the altar and again he
called upon the name of god here was the place where Abraham separated himself from men and in
this place this for him was a place where prayer was want to be made and the interesting thing
about the garden of Gethsemane is that this was a place where Christ often resorted to with his
disciples we're told that in the gospel of Luke chapter 22 I think at verse 39 we're told it in
the gospel of John in chapter 18 at verse 2 the place where Jesus often went with his disciple
the place that he knew this was not a some unique experience of Christ in the garden of Gethsemane
there were unique aspects to it but I'm suggesting to you that he often went there and that when
these disciples went with Jesus on this occasion they knew perfectly well that he was going to go
and that he was going to pray and he went there in order to pray the gospel of Luke emphasizes that
he went there in order to pray the place where he had been to as he was want with his disciples
you have that place outside Damascus you remember at the Philippi sorry we're thinking about
Damascus with all the import of that wonderful experience but Philippi you remember in Acts
chapter 16 when Paul and his companions they went outside the city to the riverside where
there was a group of women who met there regularly in the place where prayer was want
to be made and I'm suggesting this to you that you have a place where prayer is want to be made
sometimes it may be some kind of little closet I remember when I was working in industry for
example before I came into the ministry in Scotland and those of you who know and who try
to live as Christians in the workforce you know perfectly well that you're a light shining in a
very dark place and your ears are hearing things and your eyes are seeing things and your noses are
smelling things that you would rather not be exposed to we all know that and I remember
sometimes the secret place was just the changing room behind the lockers and for my own good I had
to go away at times and just to pray and you all know what I'm speaking about and there are those
times when we are driven to that closet that place where prayer is want to be made now there's
nothing unusual about that there's nothing abnormal about a Christian going away secretly
separating himself even from his fellow men his fellow believers as Christ did these three dearest
most intimate disciples he went away even from them we must separate ourselves from our wives
and our families and our closest friends in order to go and to speak to God about those things that
trouble us most or those things that please us most speak to God that is what we do and we do it
alone before a God and the place the place where there is frankness and freeness the pit the place
that is associated with past blessings and the past answers to prayer the place that to us is
a special hallowed place away from men we go there to pray and do you know that is surely what is
meant at least in part or in principle I would suggest to you in that tremendous statement that
we have at the end of Hebrews chapter 4 you remember let us come therefore with boldness
to the throne of grace here is the place where ultimately we all must come to pray there's only
one place ultimately the throne of grace and let us come with boldness that we may find mercy and
grace to help us in our time of need now one of the important aspects about that great text is
this the word boldness do you know what it means it means freedom of speech it doesn't mean that
presumptuous courage that boldness that is often the mark of a sinner in God's presence no
it is confidence and frankness this place where we come and we speak our mind to God
do you remember that occasion when the disciples said to our Lord Jesus Christ now you're speaking
plainly and not speaking any riddles that word plainly is the same word the place where we can
come and we know that we can simply speak to God about things that we couldn't even speak to our
nearest and there's the place where we speak frankly and freely to God and that essentially
must be a place of separation from worldly things and other men in this world and I'm going to
suggest something to you that if we are neglecting the secret place then that neglect can never be
compensated for by public activities because to neglect the secret place is the most dangerous
symptom of declension from God if you and I are living a life of faith and confidence in God then
we will frequent the secret place and if we find the secret place a burden it's because we're
finding God a burden and if we don't want to speak to God there in secrecy then we won't want
to speak to God in reality anywhere we don't want to speak to God and what I'm saying to you this
I've noticed in my own heart and all the books agree with this and every Christian testimony
agrees with this that the neglect of this secret prayer is the first indication that something is
going wrong in my relationship to God and if we are neglecting that secret separate experience
of prayer private where I pray for myself by myself then I am beginning to fall away
from that consistent life of Christian obedience that the scriptures everywhere hold before us
as normative and desirable and commanded in the word of God Christ here not only engaged in
prayer but he went away on his own and he prayed in secret to his father and the third thing I've
just got time to mention it this morning but I think we must mention it and that is the confidence
with which he prayed going a little further we're told in verse 39 he fell with his face to the
ground and prayed and he said this and remember the context of the darkness of this terrible
night in which he was betrayed he fell with his face to the ground and he said my father if it
be possible and then we have the same thing in verse 42 my father if it is not possible for this
cup to be taken away and then we're told at verse 44 he said the same thing and what is the very
first thing that you and I are to say according to the teaching of Christ in Matthew chapter 6
how are we to begin our father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name that's how he begins my
our father now what's the significance of that well there are many significances
but one surely is this the confidence that we have of our relationship to God our father means
that we are his children my father means that he he understands that he is the son of God
he knows who he is and he knows what he is before God and he knows what God is to him his father in
heaven and that means he has a confidence not only in his relationship to God but he has a
confidence in what God will do for him as he asks him to do he has confidence that God will hear him
he is confident that God will help him he is confident that God will deliver him he is
confident that God will ultimately glorify him he is confident that God is the hearer and the
answerer of prayer and sometimes you and I have difficulties in this area of confidence
just as we have difficulties in actually praying and in actually taking a place and a time away
from the ordinary affairs of life in order to pray these are our difficulties in prayer
and every one of them is brought to the fore in a most wonderful and instructive and exemplary way
by our lord Jesus Christ here our father and if only you and I could understand that the scripture
does not ask us to live by our feelings or by the experiences of life but to live by the teaching
of the word of God how did Christ know that God was his father well he knew the scriptures
he knew from his own experience of course he knew but he knew what the scripture said about the
Christ who was to come that he was to be the holy child of God he knew from his spiritual mind he
knew from the practice of piety if you like the unclouded mind the unsullied conscience that he
was one who was before God as God's son and there's a sense in which you and I must know that
also from the scriptures because the bible tells us that those who believe in Christ
have everlasting life they have the holy spirit they can call God Abba a father
they have the spirit of adoption to believe in Christ is the mark of renewal by the holy ghost
and if only you and I would understand the scriptures as they impinge and impress upon us
what we are before God and how precious is our prayers before God as incense the golden altar
of incense that's how the bible speaks of the believer with all his faults and failings and his
feelings of unworthiness like the publican the tax collector God be merciful these are wonderful
things in God's eyes and in God's ears when God hears us crying from the depths
and all we can confess is the gravity and the enormity of our sins how wonderful that is
angels rejoice when sinners come in this way repenting with tears and with broken hearts
and what I'm saying is that in this prayer life of Christ here we have that inner confidence coming
forth he knows what in a few short hours he's going to experience and he knows why and he
knows that there are powers of darkness which will yet be more seriously and fiercely unleashed
against him he knows that but he also knows that God is his father we're reminded in Hebrews
chapter 5 though he were a son yet learned he obedience in the things that he suffered who in
the days of his flesh with loud cries and with tears cried unto God and he was heard in that he
feared he was heard and God delivered him and these things are written not to depress us or
to discourage us these things are written in order that as we understand that Christ has gone into
this crucible of prayer so he invites us to come follow me and if you and I follow him we will find
in our lives elements similar analogous to those elements that he is experiencing and expressing
as he prayed to God in the garden of Gethsemane this passage is a great encouragement for us to
pray because we will never have the barriers we will never have the darkness we will never have
the wrath of God upon us in the way that Christ was experiencing these things and yet he prayed
and so I leave these thoughts with you engage in prayer the activity of prayer
separation go away and pray secretly privately and yet with confidence God according to the
scripture is the God who is the hearer and the answerer of prayer and he invites all flesh
to come unto him may God grant that we will so do for Jesus sake and I better stop there