Time and time again over the years when I am teaching my three-year-old students how to do something they do not yet know how to do (like how to pack their own backpack), they will say when they first try, “I can’t do it!” My response is “don’t say you can’t, you can.” Then, I proceed to show them how to do it by being intentional about not doing it for them, but with them. Why with them? Because by walking them through it, there will be a day where they do it all by themselves. Watching them go from the mindset they can’t, to they can, is one of my favorite parts of teaching preschoolers. As followers of Christ, how often do we say, “I can’t do it,” when the Lord is asking us to do something we don’t think we can do?
Last month, I shared in my post how “all the changes happening at once would be a big adjustment for me… yet, I did not anticipate the emotional toll it would take.” There have been some “I can’t,” moments along the way. There have been moments where I cried out to the Lord asking Him why He called me to step into a multitude of hard changes all at once. The Lord continues to bring to my mind a passage, which was studied in my series “Lessons in the Garden.” To my surprise, there is another lesson He opened my eyes to learn.
Let us read Matthew 26:36-46, which says,
“Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, ‘Sit here, while I go over there and pray.’ And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, ‘My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.’ And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, ‘My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.’ And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, ‘So, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.’ Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, ‘My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.’ And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again. Then he came to the disciples and said to them, ‘Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.”
Jesus, our Lord and Savior is the Ultimate Disciple who gives us the blueprint of what it means to follow Him. So, how did Jesus navigate His hard moment? How can we follow His lead?
- PRAYER. Three times (verses 39, 42, and 44) Jesus took what He was troubled with to the Father in prayer. When we don’t think we can do what the Lord has called us to, seek Him. He is the One who will equip us for what He calls us to do (Hebrews 13:20-21).
- NOT MY WILL. Jesus knew the emotional and physical pain He was about to suffer, and He sought the Father asking if there was a chance He could not endure it. Jesus did not end His prayer there, though, He ended His prayer in verse 39b with “not as I will, but as you will.” When the Lord calls us to do something hard, how often do we respond in our flesh? When we follow Christ, our flesh must be put to death daily, which means instead of focusing on all the reasons we think we can’t do what He is asking us to do, instead focus on how God’s power is made perfect in our weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9).
Reader, Jesus will never call His disciples to do what is easy. Our lives will be filled with having to say, yes, to what He says knowing it will be hard and uncomfortable. Yet, it is in the hard moments we need to seek Him, trust Him, and surrender to His will. We can do the hard things He calls us to do because He did it first, and so, He will help us do the hard things, too.
All Bible verses are from Holy Bible: English Standard Version