Monday, November 11, 2002 AD "Learn of Jesus Christ to Pray" The hymn "Go to Dark Gethsemane" came to mind last night as I was reading Luke 22 and it struck me that we can learn of Jesus Christ to pray not only by His perfect example of surrender to the Father's will, but also by His instruction to His disciples. They were, as the NIV puts it, "exhausted from sorrow," yet He bids them pray against temptation. Our sorrow or joy or whatever other passion seizes us must not be allowed to dictate our prayer lives. And what exhaustion of ours could match His, who "being in anguish...prayed more earnestly"? I so often think sleep is the thing I need most, when anyone glancing at my life for half a second could clearly see that I need to get my head off the pillow and my knees on the floor.
Go to dark Gethsemane, ye that feel the tempter’s power;
Your Redeemer’s conflict see, watch with Him one bitter hour,
Turn not from His griefs away; learn of Jesus Christ to pray.
See Him at the judgment hall, beaten, bound, reviled, arraigned;
O the wormwood and the gall! O the pangs His soul sustained!
Shun not suffering, shame, or loss; learn of Christ to bear the cross.
Calvary’s mournful mountain climb; there, adoring at His feet,
Mark that miracle of time, God’s own sacrifice complete.
“It is finished!” hear Him cry; learn of Jesus Christ to die.
Early hasten to the tomb where they laid His breathless clay;
All is solitude and gloom. Who has taken Him away?
Christ is risen! He meets our eyes; Savior, teach us so to rise.
BTW, this isn't in the Trinity Hymnal. Anybody have any ideas why it might have been excluded? Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 11/11/2002 08:33:00 AM
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