Overwhelmed

As I enter this time of prayer, I repeat the words of Psalm 23:4 slowly, several times, making them my prayer to God:

‘Even though I walk through the darkest valley,

I will fear no evil, for you are with me.’

Pause and repeat

Over the next five days we are going to explore the prayer of Jesus on Maundy Thursday in the Garden of Gethsemane, beginning today with Mark 14:33–35.

Pause and read the passage

Pete writes, ‘When our souls, like Christ’s, are overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death, we do not necessarily pray like Jesus. In fact, we may barely pray at all … I was scared that Sammy might die if I didn’t pray enough, or if I didn’t have enough faith, or if I didn’t fast enough, or if I didn’t bind some disembodied principality, or if I didn’t repent of some root sin, or if I didn’t strap her body on a stretcher bound for Bethel or Lourdes. Surely, I thought, God would not disqualify her on a technicality? I’m ashamed to admit that this was how my prayer life looked when it really counted. Sammy’s faith frequently amazed me, but I prayed at best like a child and at worst like an addict needing to score’*

In Jesus’ hour of need, He asked Peter, James, and John, His three best friends, to support Him in prayer. Who are these people for me?

Pause and reflect

I take a little time now to thank the Lord for those He’s put around me, being honest, too, about any disappointments I may feel (His best friends failed Him too in Gethsemane, see Mark 14:37–41).

Pause and pray

As I bring this time with God to a close, I pray a fourteenth-century prayer of trust from Thomas à Kempis:

O Lord my God, do not be far from me. My God, have regard to help me.

I have many thoughts and great fears afflicting my soul. How will I pass through unhurt?

How will I break them to pieces?

This is my hope, my one only consolation,

to flee to you in every tribulation, to trust in you, to call on you from my inmost heart,

and to wait patiently for your consolation.**

Amen.

*Pete Greig, God on Mute, David C Cook, (Colorado Springs, 2020), p43

**Freely modified from Prayers of the Middle Ages, ed. J. Manning Potts (1954).