FMF— Grief
This post was originaly published on November 11, 2020 and is part of the Five Minute Friday blog link-up ( Five Minute Friday link-up). Where I join up with a community of bloggers and writers who blog for Jesus. Free write for 5 minutes, unscripted, unedited, just write on a one word prompt. This week’s word prompt is: {Grief}
I sat and stared at my laptop screen for a very long time, thinking, praying. Asking the Holy Spirit to guide my thoughts and my fingers on the keyboard. This is where he took me.
Go
“ Father if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will but yours be done”. An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.” Luke 22:42:45 (NIV)
Jesus, both 100% human and 100% God. In his humanness was able to feel the same emotions as us, that’s why he could relate to and feel all the emotions and pain as we do. He prayed a double sided prayer, a prayer coin if you will.
He was grieving and anguished that day in the garden as he prayed to his father. He prayed to his father with raw honest abandon. In his grief he was praying harder than we will ever know, to have blood stained sweat. The condition of sweating blood is called Hematohidrosis
in which capillary blood vessels that feed the sweat glands rupture, causing them to exude blood; it occurs under conditions of extreme physical or emotional stress.
In the first part of his grief stricken prayer Jesus expressed his anguish and grief of the upcoming trials, and agony he knew he would endure, not just the horror of his crucifixion, but his separation from his father that he would have to experience in order to die for the worlds sins. “ Take this cup”.
Stop
The second part of the prayer, Jesus also reaffirmed his commitment to do what God wanted “ Yet not my will, but yours be done”. Jesus did not give up or give in. He went ahead with the mission for which he had come.
We see two sides of Jesus. Two sides of us. Two sides of prayer. In her book The Prayer Coin, Elisa Morgan thanks one of her friends Evan for asking her a simple yet profound question “ Have you ever noticed that Jesus prayed both ‘Take this cup’ and ‘Not my will’ in one single sentence? Isn’t that powerful? She says in that moment, her understanding of the prayer coin began to form”.
Friends, grief may come to us from many sides, situations, seasons, and circumstances. And, grief may look and feel different to different people, as we are all different, yet alike.
Photo by Mike Labrum on Unsplash
