WEDNESDAY - 18TH AUGUST, 2021
MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE - Olusola ADEJUMO
IN THE DAYS OF YOUR OWN FLESH WHEN YOU'LL BE SHAKEN
Read Luke 22:39-44, Matthew 26:36-44
Hebrews 5:7, NIV
"During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission."
Where NIV version says, "during the days of Jesus' life on earth"; KJV says, "In the days of His flesh." I'll say I like both.
What happen during the days of Jesus' flesh? The days of His flesh was when He was here; when He once walked and lived on this earth; when He ate like we eat now and was a man of like passion just like us and like Elijah was. What happen to Him?
We were told that He found Himself in a strait. You can call it the most difficult situation on earth. Nothing can be as difficult as death knocking on one's door or one knowing his life will soon be taken! Who will rejoice and begin to clap especially when it seems more is still expected of one or one can still give more? So, on this hard day when it appeared glaringly to Jesus that the time of His being offered for sin draws near, He responded with something. He offered up PRAYERS and PETITIONS with FERVENT CRIES and TEARS to somebody. The very One who could save Him from death. That was His Father, our Father. The One all prayers are directed to. The One unto whom all flesh comes because He answers prayers.
Yesterday, you saw what "petition" was. It's entreaties or pleas. Imagine Jesus doing that. No one is on his own. Let all of us know it. Don't say, "I can't humble myself or nothing can bend me." Even Jesus, something bent Him. Whenever the day of shaking appears, man can't but be moved. It is such days that make it a necessity for us to seek the stability of God and pray in a manner that we will find for ourselves and not one we would be called into like: "open your mouth and cry wide", as dictated by the one leading the prayer.
In the quoted verse above, you could see the trouble of Jesus. He got to His own full stop and though He had been praying willingly before, He can't but pray again because of a need that shows up in a seemingly way that looked as if He would be swallowed by it. An African proverb says, "when a child encounters fear; he sure must be moved." That is, he can't but act somehow or someway that has been already predetermined. Fear is fearful and it can shake one. Today quoted verse actually reveals Jesus praying in Gethsemane. What happen in Gethsemane? He prayed that the cup would pass over Him but while rather acknowledging why He was sent on earth. So, He said, "let thy (God's, My Father's will) be done.
The battle could have been lost here. Experiencing this and knowing what's to come of the suffering to endure, he quavers under the heaviness of such task. The Bible said as he prayed, his sweat became as thick as blood. Does that not describe to you droplets from a labourer falling to the ground? [Luke 22:39-44]. It shows what sort of hard work He was apprenticed to at that time. If Jesus had given up at Gethsemane, that would have been the end. The victory at the cross was first the victory obtained at Gethsemane for there wouldn't have been any victory at the cross if the battle of will and acceptance of assignment was defeated, forfeited and lost here.
So, on that day, Jesus prayed and petitioned God with hot cries and tears. Imagine how he prayed. I've heard people say, "cry aloud to God" before. That's not sinful or bad. Meanwhile, you can cry aloud without being told or taught when you find yourself in circumstances that looks like a day of death to you too. Our needs will dictate what we pray and how we pray it. Your need can teach you prayer. Jesus' bent Him to pray and He did so in an extraordinarily sympathetic was. He so much needed help lest He collapsed under the weight of that assignment that even an angel was released to strengthen Him.
No one that's on this earth is therefore offered an escape from prayer. If such is not praying now, it is because the day of his own emergency and fear hasn't arrived. When Jesus' arrived, He prayed earnestly until the by-product from his body was as thick as blood! What a labour, a groaning and a crushing! The reason why we can't but pray is that as long as we are on this earth, in this life, in this realm, we will sure be needy. Even if you don't make a practice of prayer, your need one day will drive you to pray. Even if you don't know Jehovah, you'll make prayers on your own day of need to a place where you believe your help can come from. No one is excluded. No middle ground either. You can't but pray. All of us including atheists have made prayers before even if it was to a mere man. If you tell another for instance, "please, ensure you come to pick me up." What have you done? You have prayed them to do you something you can't do for yourself at that time even if you know how to drive. You have asked, begged or pleaded for something. Even when your statement is void of the word, "please", you'll still be deemed to have made a request that's not in your capacity to fulfill but of another.
Now, because all of us will find ourselves in a look alike situation of Jesus; where we will be fretted, surrounded on all sides, distressed, confounded with compounded problems, we can't but look somewhere for help. On Jesus' day, He did that like a child. He didn't keep His dignity or let His hand remain in his pocket while doing that. Some things will snatch "ego, show off and pride" from you. Such is the day likened to Jesus' day of death that can't but come upon you in this life. It may be the falling sick of a child, the involving in an accident of a spouse, the immediate need of money to pay an embarrassing debt. All these and other helps which you may on that day need will make you too take a posture or do acts that will make mockers to diminish and laugh at your show of calling unto God. When this day of sobriety, humiliation and challenge comes, may the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ hearken unto you too just like He hearkened unto Jesus and supported Him to drink His cup.
May this Psalm find fulfilment on you at such time when you need an anchor that keeps the soul.
Psalms 20:1, KJV
"The LORD hear thee in the day of trouble; the name of the God of Jacob defend thee."
PRAYER: Lord, stay close to me as I walk this earth in this my lifetime. When the day likened unto Jesus' day of death draws near, hearken to my cry and be my fortitude.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: Nehemiah 12:27-13:31, 1 Corinthians 11:1-16, Psalm 35:1-16, Proverbs 21:17-18
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