He knelt down and prayed, saying, "Father, if it is Your will, remove this cup from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done." Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him. And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. And His sweat became like great drops of blood (Luke 22:41-44).
THEME
COMFORT
"He watch'd and wept; he pray'd and felt for all," wrote Oliver Goldsmith about one of his characters in THE DESERTED VILLAGE.
In great distress, Jesus went to an olive orchard to talk to the only One who really feels for all--the heavenly Father. Jesus wanted to forgo the humiliation of a criminal cross.
No Jew ever spoke to God as Jesus did in the garden; He called Him ABBA, which is almost the same as DADDY or PAPA in modern English. After His intimate conversation with His Father, He seemed ready to face His betrayer and judges, ready to begin His death march.
The disciples, particularly Peter, James, and John, could have comforted and supported Jesus, but they did not hear the death knell. While Jesus struggled with His coming agony, they slept.
God does not take naps. Always alert to our suffering, He comforts us in our troubles so that we can console others (2 Corinthians 1:3-4). In reaching out to others, we walk arm-in-arm with them--crying, praying, hoping--feeling all it means to be human.
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NOV 11
MATTHEW 26:36-46
"My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me" (Matthew 26:38).
Suffering comes to all of us, and no one can suffer for us. Even so, loved ones and friends can support us in many ways in those difficult times by their prayers and understanding. But when we are too proud to admit our need to others, we are in great danger.
The Sequoia trees of California tower as high as 300 feet above the ground, yet these giants have unusually shallow root systems, which reach out in all directions to capture the greatest amount of surface moisture. Seldom do redwoods stand alone, because high winds would quickly uproot them. They grow in clusters, their intertwining roots providing support for one another against the storms.
Support is what Jesus wanted from Peter, James, and John in Gethsemane as He faced Calvary. On the cross as the world's sin-bearer He would experience the Father's wrath and abandonment. That was the awful cup He prayed would be taken from Him. In that dark hour, He looked to His disciples for prayerful alertness and compassion. But they disappointed Him. The sight of His sleeping disciples must have made the isolation of Gethsemane even more painful.
If Jesus looked to human support in His crisis hour, how much more do Christians need one another when they suffer. We must be willing to ask someone to pray for us and with us. And we must be alert for opportunities to lend our support to others who are suffering.
--D.J.D.
Those who suffer need more than sympathy; they need companionship.
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NOV 12
ROMANS 16:1-16
Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus (Romans 16:3).
The Bible tells us that God is the Helper of His children (Heb 13:6). Most important, of course, He has delivered us from the condemnation of sin by providing salvation. But He also comes to our aid in many other ways every day. His example shows us that it is vital for us to do the same for other believers. Paul was especially concerned about encouraging Christians to help one another, and he commended those who had aided him in Rome. In his letter to the Christians there, he wrote, "Greet Mary, who labored much for us" (16:6). And of Phoebe he said, "She has been a helper of many" (16:2).
Edmund Hillary and his Sherpa guide, Tenzing Norgay, successfully completed their historic climb of Mt. Everest in 1953, a feat of remarkable courage and skill. Once during their descent Hillary lost his footing. Instinctively, Tenzing held the line taut and kept them both from falling by digging his ax firmly into the ice. Hillary recovered his balance, regained a foothold, and they continued their descent. When reporters later called Tenzing a hero, he refused to take any credit. Rather, he said, "Mountain climbers always help one another." He considered it a routine part of his job.
That's the way it should be with Christians. We are all pilgrims headed toward the same goal. When another's burden becomes heavy or someone stumbles along the way, we should give whatever assistance we can. Outsiders should say of us, "Christians always help one another."
--D.C.E.
When we share another's burdens, both of us will walk straighter.
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NOV 13
LUKE 7:11-18
Jesus, when He came out, saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them (Mark 6:34).
At times, the world seems to be an uncaring, unsympathetic place. People are often cruel and indifferent, not giving a second thought to the plight of their suffering neighbors. Wrapped up in their own interests, they don't seem to notice the anguish and despair that is at their doorstep.
This could not be said of the Lord Jesus. Time after time He met the needs of suffering people. Luke 7 tells about Christ's compassion when He saw the widow stricken with grief over the death of her son. Jesus had compassion on her and healed the boy. Earlier, when He saw a man with leprosy--who was despised, ostracized, and no doubt terribly disfigured--He made him well (Luke 5:12-15). Still today, Jesus looks upon human need with compassion.
A little girl whose mother had been taken to the hospital was spending the night alone with her father for the first time. Soon after her father turned out the lights, the girl asked quietly, "Daddy, are you there?" "Yes," he assured her. A moment later she asked, "Daddy, are you looking at me?" When he said yes, she fell asleep.
Likewise, every child of God can depend on the Savior's look of love. No matter how painful the problem or how deep the sorrow, we know He has His eyes fixed on us. And knowing that our Savior's compassionate gaze always watches over us should make us loving, caring people. Although the world may turn its eyes from suffering, the Christian, following the example of our Savior, should be alert to sorrow and quick to respond.
--D.C.E.
God loves every one of us as if there were but one of us to love.
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NOV 14
ACTS 20:16-31
"I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears"
(Acts 20:31).
Some people think crying is a sign of weakness. But our Savior wept. And the apostle Paul was not afraid to mention his own tears when he wrote to the Ephesian elders about his burden for the people he was trying to reach. Good servants or ministers of Jesus Christ will be like that--they will have tender, compassionate hearts. They will be so filled with concern and love that those feelings will often splash over as tears. If not tears on the cheek, certainly deep feeling in the soul.
One day D. L. Moody preached an especially moving sermon about the compassion of Christ. When a friend asked him how he had prepared such a message, he answered, "I got to thinking the other day about the compassion of Christ; so I took the Bible and began to read it over to find out what it said on the subject. I prayed over the texts as I went along until the thought of His infinite compassion overpowered me, and I could only lie on the floor of my study with my face in the open Bible and cry like a child."
As we stand in the shadow of the cross and let God's love in Christ flood our souls, our hard hearts will melt, and coldness will give way to warmth. If we allow the Holy Spirit to control us, He will produce in us a Christlike concern. Then His burden and His compassion for the unsaved will become ours. The love of Christ will cause us to reach out to others. And that caring attitude will be accompanied by timely tears.
--P.R.V.
Tears flow freely from the fountain of a love-filled heart.
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NOV 15
JOHN 11:17-37
Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep (Romans 12:15).
Tears are stronger than words and more binding than treaties. In 1947, President Harry S. Truman visited Chapaltepec Castle, the West Point of Mexico. A hundred years earlier, when U.S. Troops captured the citadel, only six cadets survived, and they all committed suicide rather than surrender. As Truman placed a wreath on the monument to the heroes and bowed his head, the cadets in the color guard burst into tears. Someone said that nothing did more to help cement the two countries together than the emotion expressed on that occasion.
Christians, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, can express their deepest agonies and noblest desires through tears. When mingled with prayer, trust, or compassion, tears become a most beautiful and ennobling expression of the believer's faith.
I have no doubt that Jesus delighted in life's wholesome joys and pleasures, even though Scripture does not mention His smiles or laughter. Yet He was so in touch with the heartbreaks of sin all around Him that He wept unashamedly at a tomb, shed tears over the unbelief of Jerusalem, and entered fully into the sorrows of sin-laden humanity.
Our Savior's tears encourage us to be true to our emotions, letting the Holy Spirit use them to overcome barriers and heal relationships. Moistened eyes often convey faith, honesty, caring, love. We cry because hurting, hardened, unbelieving people need Jesus. And they just might meet Him through our tears.
--D.J.D.
The soul could have no rainbow if the eyes had no tears.
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NOV 16
MARK 14:32-38
"Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will" (Mark 14:36).
To be healed or not to be healed--that is the question. Many sincere believers in the Lord Jesus claim that sickness is never within God's will for the Christian. Therefore we should pray for restoration with a tenacity that refuses to take no for an answer. According to them, the reason physical infirmity continues to linger in our lives is that we have become content with it. What we need, they say, is more faith and a rejection of the qualifier we usually add to our prayers, "If it be Thy will." They say that is nothing more than a copout.
But consider Jesus' plea in the Garden of Gethsemane. Although His prayer focused on the awful ordeal He faced, not sickness, God's response to it clearly shows that His glory is not always best served through instant, miraculous deliverance. In His humanity, the Lord Jesus drew back from the awful prospect of pain and suffering, just as we would from cancer or some other dreaded disease. And like Him, we have a right to ask that "this cup" be taken from us. Yet underlying our natural revulsion to disease and our longing for release, we must ask, what will glorify God the most? The Norwegian theologian Ole Hallesby said we should pray something like this: "Lord, if it will be Your glory, heal suddenly. If it will glorify You more, heal gradually; if it will glorify You even more, may your servant remain sick awhile; and if it will glorify Your name still more, take him to Yourself in heaven."
Anyone who prays "Thy will be done" from the heart, as Jesus did, will never say it's a copout.
--D.J.D.
When God denies us anything, it's always to give us something better.
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NOV 17
MARK 1:40-45
And Jesus, moved with compassion, put out His hand, and touched him (Mark 1:41).
People who enjoy good health sometimes neglect the less fortunate, and sometimes they even treat them cruelly. When I was very young, I saw a group of older boys teasing a retarded man unmercifully. I've also observed people deliberately avoid someone who looks "different" or who has a physical handicap. Perhaps they are embarrassed to be seen with such a person or are afraid of giving a little bit of themselves and getting nothing in return.
Jesus never responded that way. He was kind to afflicted people, and they thronged about Him. He took a blind man by the hand and led him away from the crowd before healing him. He touched the sick--even lepers. He stopped to expel demons from the possessed.
While visiting my brother and his family in Phoenix, my wife and I both observed my sister-in-law's kindness to people most others ignore. Every week she spends a large part of a day helping two aged shut-ins. She has also befriended a mentally impaired man who lives on her street. Almost every day he stops at her home for a brief visit. From the smile on his face, we sensed the joy she brings into his life.
How we treat the less fortunate among us is one measure of our likeness to Jesus. Because they often cannot give in return, we have a special opportunity to be truly unselfish. We should welcome every occasion to show Christlike compassion to those who receive so little but need so much.
--H.V.L.
A test of our Christian love is whether or not we help those who cannot help us in return.
