The closer the Son of God got to Jerusalem, the greater became the shadow of the cross that fell on His pathway. The sufferings of anticipating what would happen to Him at Golgotha increased more and more. On the one hand, He shied away from coming into contact with sin and being forsaken by God, for sin was something foreign to His Being. On the other hand, He wanted to do the will of His Father at all costs—and save us from eternal ruin. In prayer, He expresses his inner distress and his understandable desire to be saved from this hour. In view of the cross, only One could truly understand Him—His Father, who went with Him to Calvary. He turned to Him and opened His heart.
We cannot compare our hardships with what the soul of the Son of God endured on the way to Calvary. Nevertheless, we learn some basic things from the words He said to His Father in prayer.
You may find yourself in situations where you don’t know what to pray for. What do you do then? In such circumstances, you can pour out your heart to God and tell Him how you feel and what is going on inside you. You may also pray that God will have mercy on you, for example, by releasing you from serious hardships. He doesn’t promise to answer your prayer in this way, but He assures you that His peace, which nothing can shake, will then preserve your heart (see Phil. 4:6).
Often God is more glorified when, instead of changing circumstances, He gives us the grace and mercy we need to honor Him in the midst of circumstances through trust and perseverance! Paul pleaded three times at the throne of grace for the Lord to remove the thorn in his flesh. But the Son of God was pursuing a higher goal. He explained to His servant that instead of changing the circumstances, He would give sufficient grace for the Apostle to serve Him in weakness (see 2 Cor. 12:9–10). At the throne of grace there is both mercy and grace. God gives both in time—for He never arrives too late!
Sometimes we are so overwhelmed by the suffering that sin has brought into this world that we no longer really know what and how to pray. But it is precisely then that the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words—and God understands these sighs perfectly (see Rom. 8:26). Our Lord wept at the tomb of Lazarus. He sighed deeply in spirit (see John 11:33). Even if you find yourself in a situation where you are so depressed that you no longer know how to pray, you can still be sure of one thing, “that for those who love God all things work together for good” (Rom. 8:28)!
When was the last occasion you took the time to really tell God all the issues that are on your mind (see Phil. 4:6), casting all your burdens and worries on Him (see Ps. 55:22; 1 Pet. 5:7)? How often do you pray that God will change circumstances, and how often does He change you through the circumstances? Trust that God has good intentions with every affliction that He allows and that He will give you all the grace you need to honor Him in difficult trials!
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