14
Jul '16
Amen
14
Jul '16
Aaron Lee – July 14, 2016
My absolute favorite story about Jesus is His prayer in the garden of Gethsemane found in Matthew 26. It’s so raw, so real. When I read it I can almost feel a bit of the weight on His shoulders. What I love about the passage is that He is both human and divine during this short section of Scripture.
In Matthew 26:42b (ESV) Jesus cries out to God by saying,
“My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, Your will be done.”
He knows what has to be done to bridge the gap, but it just felt unbearable. He had to have felt so alone in that moment. But Jesus never took His eyes off the Father.
If you are a follower of Jesus, how many times have you said the word “amen” in your life? Or how about this, how many of you actually know what that word means?
Dusting off the cobwebs of my Bible college degree, I found that the word amen means
“so it is” or“so be it.”
THE TWO MEANINGS
That phrase has two meanings doesn’t it? First, it’s a declaration of confidence that the prayer we’ve just prayed has been heard and that God is capable of fulfilling every request. But the second meaning is a little more difficult. It means exactly what Jesus prayed in the garden,
Your will be done.
We should know that God isn’t our handyman or genie to fulfill our every want and desire (even though He’s capable of doing so). More importantly, we should want His will to be done even if it contradicts the very thing we want in our lives or think we need in our lives.
Now that takes commitment to the Mission. I know that is ridiculously difficult for me.
Hindsight is 20/20. It’s easy for us to look back at Jesus in the garden and say, “Yep, I see why He went through with it.” But the future is a lot harder. It requires blind action, trust and, most importantly, faith.
Philippians 4:6-7 says
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”
REMEMBER
So the next time you’re praying, remember how Jesus prayed. It’s okay for us to bring our requests before Him, but we must be okay with the answer we get back.
The way I look at it is this: the perfection of God Almighty is not bound by time or justification, but truth and presence. How can you not trust that? How can you not just hand it to God and say, “Amen”?