My eyes were recently opened (thanks to the writings of Philip Yancey) to something that I had never really noticed before. Think about the tranquility and calmness, the peace & the stength that Jesus exhibited during his trials, the beatings, the torture, and the crucifixion itself. In the Gospels, Jesus is in complete control. When he offers himself to be arrested, the guards draw back and fall to the ground. When Pilate questions and then sentences him, Jesus replies with, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you.”
When did Jesus struggle the most during? It wasn’t during all of these events, it was earlier that night, in prayer, before any of these things had transpired. In that time of prayer, we read that Jesus was heavily burdened, scared, and possibly even terrified of what was to come. Sweat and tears and blood poured from his body that night.
In response to this, Philip Yancey says the following: “For most of us, prayer serves as a resource to help in a time of testing or conflict. For Jesus, it was the battle itself. One the Gethsemane prayers had aligned him with the Father’s will, what happened next was merely the means to fulfill it. In the words of Haddon Robinson, ‘Had I been there (in the garden with Jesus) I would have worried about the future. “If he is so broken up when all he is doing is praying, what will he do when he faces a real crisis? Why can’t he approach this ordeal with the same calm confidence of his three sleeping friends?” Yet, when the test came, Jesus walked to the cross with courage, and his three friends fell apart and fell away.’
These words and insights hit me like a ton of bricks. For my entire adult life, and throughout the last 8 years of ministry, I have approaced prayer as preparation for the battle that is to come. Prayer is that which will give me the strength and wisdom to go out and fight the darkness. And yet, it appears, that the real battle is fought in prayer. If I see prayer simply as the pep-talk before the big game, then when I speak or teach or “fight the good fight” as I have understood it, I am simply walking out onto a field, fully prepared to fight, only to see that the battle has been over for quite some time.
Could my life and my ministry lack power and authority, could renewal and passion and a longing for God be missing from the students I work with because I have “fallen asleep the night before” and not devoted myself to the real battle taking place in & through prayer?
Jesus shows us that what we seek to accomplish and bring about in/through our ministries and our Christian lives happens first and foremost (and maybe only) through the discipline and avenue and battle that is prayer.