#1,2,3 Prayers Devotional
Daily Reading: Matthew 26:36-46- 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.” 37 He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” 39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” 40 Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. 41 “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 42 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.” 43 When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. 44 So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.45 Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour has come, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. 46 Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!”
Gethsemane comes from two Hebrew words:
Gat- a winepress. Shmanin- oils.
Gat Shmanim placed together would make “winepress of oils”.
Jesus pressed on at the winepress of oils (Gethsemane) as He prayed (Matthew 26:39).
Why would Jesus be troubled to the point of death (Matthew 26:38)?
Because being troubled in His soul was nothing new. In fact, Jesus’ soul was troubled on the same account six days before, (John 12:27 ). Before he was afflicted by men, but now He is bruised, and put to grief by his Father: (Isaiah 53:10-11).
Jesus fell with his face to the ground and prayed to God” – but this would be against the Jewish Law unless the One who was "to fall upon his face", knows in himself that he is righteous as Joshua (Matthew 26:39).
Jesus prays the greatest prayer in the world. What hung in the balance was the glory of God’s grace and the salvation of the world. Every hope of the gospel succeeds because of Jesus’s reverent earnestness in prayer, and the answer of the Father (Matthew 26:39).
The angel was God’s response to Jesus’s first prayer and the answer is seen by the shift in the second prayer (Luke 22:42-43).
Jesus did not go on praying for the cup to pass. He went on praying for success in drinking it (Matthew 26:42).
Jesus continued praying, he knows the cup will not pass (answer from first prayer), that God would give Him success in drinking it (answer from the second prayer) and that His time has now come (answer to the third prayer) [Matthew 26:44-45].