“Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, “Sit here while I go and pray over there.” 37 And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. 38 Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.” (Matthew 26:36-38)
First, let me state emphatically . . . every invitation to pray from our LORD is a “watch with Me” command! It must become an “Abiding/Interceding” as one continuous experience.
Gethsemane. You and I will never grasp Jesus’ agony in that Garden. Have you pondered the genre of the Garden?
When God Created, —Eternal Life found its beginning and ending in Eden’s Garden.
In Gethsemane, Life was tested and the tester proved unworthy of the Tested!
You surely remember another testing at an earlier time in a wilderness Garden; Satan came against the Son of Man to tempt. The devil’s temptations of testing are strong, but the Son of Man was stronger with the Word—“Then the devil leaveth Him for a season.”
Both Gethsemane and Calvary would be the way into the New Life for those who would believe.
It was in Gethsemane that the evil one returned to tempt . . . to test . . . to challenge the resolve of Jesus. This temptation was not for the purpose of worshiping that foul spirit, but rather to live; to side-step death. “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.” (Matthew 26:39)
Satan could only possibly touch Jesus as the Son of Man, His flesh, His humanness. However, he could not even begin to touch or disturb Him as the Son of God; never there!
It is the same for the believer. Satan can touch us as we attempt to come against him in our plain humanity, but when we, as “abiding”, stand in the power and authority of the Son of God, well, therein is our power! Pray On!
