Suffering and Difficulty in Prayer

What I know::


God is with me.  He knows and He understands my pain.  When Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane He asked His Father,

“Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet, not my will but yours be done.”  Then an angel from heaven appeared to him and gave him strength. In his anguish he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground.”
Luke 2: 42-43
                       
Jesus suffered.  He felt the excruciating pain of separation from His Father during His agony.  In His anguish, as Jesus prayed, His sweat became  “great drops of blood.”  The Precious Blood of Jesus was spilled in the garden as the weight of sin grew heavy on His back.  His Precious Blood spilled, not in a small quantity, but in “great drops.” 

Jesus knows my pain.








What I know::

This moment is a trial, a challenge, which God allows in my life to strengthen me.  Through this suffering I can grow closer to Him.  This is a time when  I must trust that God knows better than I, the suffering of His cup.  He knows what this suffering will accomplish in eternity. 

Jesus asked His Father to “remove the cup” from Him.  Jesus’ human nature recoiled at what  He must endure for love of us.  As God, Jesus knew the cost,  the great suffering He would endure when He submitted to His Father’s Will.   As our Brother, Jesus accepted the bittersweet cup of salvation for love of us. 

His moment of acceptance, similar to His Mother’s fiat when Jesus was conceived, opened the Gates of Heaven to the graces of salvation.   Jesus accepted the Father's Will, and Jesus was at peace.  Jesus knew He, the Great High Priest, would be subject to the control of men.  He knew the cruelty, the wounds that would be inflicted on Him.  Jesus knew He would die for love of us.    Jesus knew that through His sufferings, we would be saved.   Jesus overcame sin through death.  When He resurrected, Jesus over came death.   Through Jesus’ submission to His Father’s Will, He was made weak.  Through the humility of Jesus, God was glorified and we were saved!





"Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me,  but He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for  power is made perfect in weakness.” So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me." 
2 Corinthians 12: 8-9 


What I Know::

God does not challenge us without giving us hope.  Our hope comes in trusting that God knows what He is doing.  As frightening and unnerving as giving up control of any situation is, as Jesus submitted to His Father’s Will, so must I.  

If words forsake me, then I will sit in silence until words come to me again.  Silence and meditation.  Silence and love.  Silence and trust.  The storm will pass.  

In the aftermath of this storm, there will be damage, but out  of the destruction comes new life, new faith, new hope.  

"For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope."  
Jeremiah 29: 11


What I Know::

In the silence, I sit knowing that God knows what I think before I do.  God knows what I will say before I say it.  God knows my heart in the silence of His Unending Love.  Jesus, the Son of the Living God, rose from the dead in silence.  There was no one to hear the sound of Him as He returned to His glorified body.  Silence brings us closer to the Lord.  I am safe.  He is the great I AM.

“But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they (the women) went to the tomb, taking the spices which they had prepared.  And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb,  but when they went in they did not find the body.  While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel;  and as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee,  that the Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise.”  Luke 14: 1-8
 
I wait in silence.  I embrace the silence.  The storm is passing, and words will return.   In His tomb, silence.   Soon the Lord will rise.  He has carved me in His Palm.  He loves me.


"See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands;
    your walls are continually before me. 
 Your builders outdo your destroyers,
    and those who laid you waste go away from you."
 Isaiah 49: 16-17