![]() “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” Luke 22:42 The Garden of Gethsemane proves the reality of our Savior’s manhood. He is in great agony as he prays before God. The agony of the weight of all of our sin. It is unbearable for us to bear the weight of our own sin. Yet Jesus, His human self, in those few hours, struggled under the weight of this responsibility. Here you can perceive how fully He shares the weakness of our humanity—not in spiritual weakness, so as to become guilty of any sin—but in mental weakness, so as to be capable of great depression of spirit, and in physical weakness, so as to be exhausted to the last degree by His terrible bloody sweat. What is extreme weakness? It is something different from pain, for sharp pain evidences at least some measure of strength, but perhaps some of you know what it is to feel as if you were scarcely alive, you were so weak that you could hardly realize that you were actually living. The blood flowed, if it flowed at all, but very slowly and everything seemed stagnant within you. The angels are generally God’s messengers, so they had something to communicate from Him, and perhaps, this angel bending over the Savior’s prostrate form, whispered in His ear words of comfort, words as a reminder of the mission, words of purpose , “Be of good cheer; You must pass through all this agony, but You wilt deliver an innumerable multitude of the sons and daughters of men, who will love and worship You and the Father forever and forever. He is with You even at this moment. Though He must hide His face from You, because of the requirements of justice that the atonement may be complete, His heart is with You, and He loves You ever.” We know that a change occurred because after the Angel ministered to Jesus, he executed ACCEPTANCE. And it is because of his agony, his travail, his sacrifice that we can practice acceptance. When you’ve accepted something, you act out every time the thoughts and feelings resurface. Acceptance yields freedom, Jesus got up and moved forward. GiGi❤️ Taken from The Agony in Gethsemane, Charles Haddon Spurgeon October 18, 1874, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Volume 20
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