1
00:00:02,720 --> 00:00:13,920
Speaker 1: Life Audio. Thank you for listening to your Daily Bible Verse,

2
00:00:14,680 --> 00:00:18,200
Speaker 1: the podcast that examines one verse each day to learn

3
00:00:18,200 --> 00:00:20,799
Speaker 1: more about God and his will for our lives. I'm

4
00:00:20,840 --> 00:00:25,200
Speaker 1: your host, Kyle Norman. After our brief message from one

5
00:00:25,200 --> 00:00:28,800
Speaker 1: of our sponsors, we will continue our lentence series, God

6
00:00:28,880 --> 00:00:32,760
Speaker 1: meets Us in the Wilderness with a discussion of today's verse.

7
00:00:44,840 --> 00:00:47,760
Speaker 1: Today's verse can be found in Matthew chapter twenty six,

8
00:00:48,479 --> 00:00:53,520
Speaker 1: Verse thirty eight. Then Jesus said to them, my soul

9
00:00:53,680 --> 00:00:58,000
Speaker 1: is very sorrowful even to death. Remain here and watch

10
00:00:58,000 --> 00:01:02,520
Speaker 1: with me in my book Alive, Loved and Free. I

11
00:01:02,560 --> 00:01:06,920
Speaker 1: spend some time reflecting on the incarnation. The incarnation is

12
00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:10,920
Speaker 1: foundational to our faith, the fact that God steps into

13
00:01:10,959 --> 00:01:15,000
Speaker 1: the world in the full humanity of Christ Jesus. It

14
00:01:15,040 --> 00:01:19,319
Speaker 1: opens for us many experiences of God's love and Christ's grace.

15
00:01:20,800 --> 00:01:24,280
Speaker 1: Too often, however, we limit our thoughts about the incarnation

16
00:01:24,440 --> 00:01:28,600
Speaker 1: to Christmas Morning. The incarnation means that Jesus comes as

17
00:01:28,840 --> 00:01:33,240
Speaker 1: an antibity baby, cute and fragile and bursting with new life.

18
00:01:34,600 --> 00:01:37,280
Speaker 1: But if God enters the fullness of humanity in the

19
00:01:37,319 --> 00:01:41,160
Speaker 1: person of Jesus, then it means that his Christ in

20
00:01:41,160 --> 00:01:45,240
Speaker 1: Gosemine are as much part of the incarnation as his

21
00:01:45,319 --> 00:01:50,440
Speaker 1: cries in the manger. Jesus prayer in the garden of Gosemone.

22
00:01:51,120 --> 00:01:56,000
Speaker 1: It wasn't pristine or sophisticated. It didn't drip with calm resolve.

23
00:01:56,840 --> 00:02:01,720
Speaker 1: This prayer was visceral and heartfelt, remained overwhelmed with sorrow

24
00:02:01,800 --> 00:02:05,840
Speaker 1: to the point of death. Luke records that Jesus calls

25
00:02:05,880 --> 00:02:08,840
Speaker 1: out to the Father with drops of blood, and he

26
00:02:08,919 --> 00:02:14,799
Speaker 1: experiences both loneliness and an agony. The garden of Gosemone

27
00:02:14,840 --> 00:02:18,560
Speaker 1: is a garden of sweat and blood and questioning and tears.

28
00:02:19,639 --> 00:02:22,400
Speaker 1: And now this is not how often we picture Gasemone.

29
00:02:23,320 --> 00:02:26,200
Speaker 1: When we think of Gsemone, we often think about Jesus'

30
00:02:26,440 --> 00:02:29,480
Speaker 1: bold resolve to accept the will of the Father. Not

31
00:02:29,639 --> 00:02:33,560
Speaker 1: my will, but your will be done, Jesus praise, and

32
00:02:33,680 --> 00:02:38,240
Speaker 1: in emphasizing this element above everything else, we turn Christ's

33
00:02:38,320 --> 00:02:42,320
Speaker 1: prayer in the garden into a prayer of overcoming, a

34
00:02:42,360 --> 00:02:46,720
Speaker 1: prayer where Christ vanquishes the full weight of emotional turmoil

35
00:02:46,800 --> 00:02:52,480
Speaker 1: within him. But by thinking this way, we remove Christ's

36
00:02:52,560 --> 00:02:57,240
Speaker 1: humanity from the scene, and we disconnect ourselves from the garden.

37
00:02:58,200 --> 00:03:01,520
Speaker 1: We might even assume that we can never pray the

38
00:03:01,560 --> 00:03:06,720
Speaker 1: way Christ prays, But Jesus shows us what it's like

39
00:03:07,280 --> 00:03:11,000
Speaker 1: to pray from the place of spiritual heaviness. And in

40
00:03:11,040 --> 00:03:14,760
Speaker 1: Gosemone we see a prayer of groaning and a crying

41
00:03:14,800 --> 00:03:19,360
Speaker 1: out to the Father to change the course of Jesus' life.

42
00:03:19,520 --> 00:03:22,400
Speaker 1: And within all of this, Jesus prays in love. He

43
00:03:22,480 --> 00:03:27,080
Speaker 1: never curses the Father, nor does he cast God's presence aside.

44
00:03:27,200 --> 00:03:31,359
Speaker 1: Amid all the darkness that surrounds him. Jesus cries out

45
00:03:31,440 --> 00:03:34,360
Speaker 1: to his heavenly Father, and he opens his heart to

46
00:03:34,440 --> 00:03:40,960
Speaker 1: the Father's will. In Gosemone, Jesus shows us how to

47
00:03:41,080 --> 00:03:46,160
Speaker 1: surrender ourselves in our darkest hours. Gsemine is an invitation

48
00:03:46,720 --> 00:03:50,160
Speaker 1: to pray in the way that Jesus prayed, beyond polite

49
00:03:50,240 --> 00:03:55,120
Speaker 1: words or phrases. In our darkest times, we are invited

50
00:03:55,240 --> 00:03:59,080
Speaker 1: into raw honesty before God. We are invited to weep

51
00:03:59,240 --> 00:04:05,080
Speaker 1: with Jesus. Yes, so what if our prayers of crying, sighing,

52
00:04:05,200 --> 00:04:09,320
Speaker 1: and groaning are how we enter Christ's prayer and Kysemite?

53
00:04:10,280 --> 00:04:14,640
Speaker 1: Could the groaning of our spirit be an articulation of

54
00:04:14,680 --> 00:04:18,599
Speaker 1: the deepest prayers that we can muster. Could it be

55
00:04:18,720 --> 00:04:21,120
Speaker 1: that when all we can do is just sit in

56
00:04:21,240 --> 00:04:26,120
Speaker 1: prayerless silence. That that's our version of sweating drops of blood.

57
00:04:27,880 --> 00:04:32,280
Speaker 1: Jesus shows us the way of prayer, true prayer. When

58
00:04:32,320 --> 00:04:36,040
Speaker 1: we feel overcome by darkness and struggle, when the things

59
00:04:36,080 --> 00:04:39,919
Speaker 1: of life seems to crush against us, reaching out to

60
00:04:40,000 --> 00:04:45,640
Speaker 1: God doesn't mean formality or simplicity. In the end, it's love,

61
00:04:46,000 --> 00:04:50,960
Speaker 1: not words that mark true prayer. Without love, prayer just

62
00:04:51,040 --> 00:04:54,880
Speaker 1: becomes rooted in fear. Without love, we fear that we

63
00:04:54,920 --> 00:04:58,560
Speaker 1: will not be received, heard, or responded to. Without love.

64
00:04:58,640 --> 00:05:02,200
Speaker 1: We fear that our world wordless groanings will never be

65
00:05:02,320 --> 00:05:05,520
Speaker 1: as faithful as they should be. But when we look

66
00:05:05,560 --> 00:05:08,520
Speaker 1: at jesus prayer the Guardian, we see that it was

67
00:05:08,560 --> 00:05:12,440
Speaker 1: his love for the Father that gave him permission to

68
00:05:12,560 --> 00:05:16,680
Speaker 1: cast himself down to the ground and scream in agony.

69
00:05:18,360 --> 00:05:23,360
Speaker 1: Jesus prayer in Yosemite allows us to expose the unkempt

70
00:05:23,680 --> 00:05:27,080
Speaker 1: and ugly parts of our spiritual lives. We can be

71
00:05:27,200 --> 00:05:30,920
Speaker 1: confident that we reach out to the one who receives us.

72
00:05:31,279 --> 00:05:34,479
Speaker 1: We can scream and we can cry, We can ask

73
00:05:34,760 --> 00:05:39,680
Speaker 1: our uncomfortable questions. Love gives us the boldness to voice

74
00:05:39,680 --> 00:05:44,480
Speaker 1: what we feel inside. So the prayers of Gosemone are

75
00:05:44,520 --> 00:05:47,039
Speaker 1: some of the deepest prayers that we can ever pray.

76
00:05:48,800 --> 00:05:52,200
Speaker 1: There's a deep holiness to what Christ experience in that garden.

77
00:05:53,400 --> 00:05:58,599
Speaker 1: Jesus did not enter the discouragement of Gosemone with stoic dismissal,

78
00:05:59,120 --> 00:06:04,560
Speaker 1: nor did he meet his upcoming crucifixion with relaxed ease. Instead,

79
00:06:04,640 --> 00:06:07,240
Speaker 1: he threw himself down to the ground and he wept.

80
00:06:08,040 --> 00:06:11,000
Speaker 1: He called out to God for answers, He swept drops

81
00:06:11,000 --> 00:06:14,640
Speaker 1: of blood, He yearned for the comfort of his friends.

82
00:06:15,279 --> 00:06:19,360
Speaker 1: And by doing all of this, he legitimizes this way

83
00:06:19,360 --> 00:06:23,040
Speaker 1: of prayer for us all. So, if you were listening

84
00:06:23,040 --> 00:06:26,400
Speaker 1: to this from a place of struggle or hurt, just

85
00:06:26,440 --> 00:06:30,400
Speaker 1: take a moment and ask yourself, what might it look

86
00:06:30,560 --> 00:06:38,159
Speaker 1: like for you to join Jesus in Gsemone